The Iliad by Homer COMPLETE Audiobook - Book 22

Book 22 The Death of Hector Thus the Trojans in the city, scared like fawns, wiped the sweat from off them and drank to quench their thirst, leaning against the goodly battlements, while the Achaeans, with their shields laid upon their shoulders, drew close up to the walls. But stern fate bade Hector stay where he was before Ilias and the Saian gates. Then Phoebus Apollo spoke to the son of Peleus, saying, Why, son of Peleus, do you, who are but man, give chase to me who am immortal? Have you not yet found out that it is a god whom you pursue so furiously? You did not harass the Trojans whom you had routed, and now they are within the walls, while you have been decoyed hither away from them. Me you cannot kill, for death can take no hold upon me. Achilles was greatly angered, and said, You have balked me, Fardarter, most malicious of all gods, and have drawn me away from the wall, where many another man would have bitten the dust, ere he got within Ilias. You have robbed me of great glory, and have saved the Trojans at no risk to yourself, for you have nothing to fear. But I would indeed have my revenge, if it were in my power to do so. On this, with fell intent he made towards the city, and as the winning horse in a chariot race strains every nerve when he is flying over the plain, even so fast and furiously did the limbs of Achilles bear him onwards. King Priam was the first to note him as he scoured the plain, all radiant as the star which men called Orion's hound, and whose beam blazed forth in time of harvest more brilliantly than those of any other that shines by night. Brightest of them, although he be, he yet bodes ill for mortals, for he brings fire and fever in his train. Even so did Achilles' armor gleam on his breast as he sped onwards. Priam raised a cry and beat his head with his hands as he lifted them up and shouted out to his dear son, imploring him to return. But Hector still stayed before the gates, for his heart was set upon doing battle with Achilles. The old man reached out his arm towards him and bade him for pity's sake come within the walls. Hector, he cried, my son! Stay not to face this man alone and unsupported, or you will meet death at the hands of the son of Peleus, for he is mightier than you. Monster that he is, would indeed that the gods loved him no better than I do, for so dogs and vultures would soon devour him as he lay stretched on earth, and a load of grief would be lifted from my heart. For many a brave son has he wreft from me, either by killing them or selling them away in the islands that are beyond the sea. Even now I miss two sons from among the Trojans who have thronged within this city, Lykaon and Polydorus, whom Lothi Perlis among women bore me. Should they be still alive and in the hands of the Achaeans, we will ransom them with gold and bronze, of which we have store, for the old man at least indulged his daughter richly. But if they are already dead and in the house of Hades, sorrow will it be to us two who were their parents, albeit the grief of others will be more short-lived, unless you too perish at the hands of Achilles. Come then, my son, within the city, to be the guardians of Trojan men and Trojan women, or you will both lose your own life and afford a mighty triumph to the son of Peleus. Have pity also on your unhappy father while life yet remains to him. On me, whom the son of Saturn will destroy by a terrible doom on the threshold of old age, after I have seen my son slain and my daughters hailed away as captives, my bridal chambers pillaged, little children dashed to earth amid the rage of battle, and my son's wives dragged away by the cruel hands of the Chaeans. In the end, fierce hounds will tear me in pieces at my own gates, after someone has beaten the life out of my body with sword or spear, hounds that I myself reared and fed at my own table to guard my gates, but who will yet lap my blood and then lie all distraught at my doors. When a young man falls by the sword in battle, he may lie where he is, and there is nothing unseemly. Let what will be seen, all is honorable in death. But when an old man is slain, there is nothing in this world more pitiable than that dogs should defile his gray hair and beard, and all that men hide for shame. The old man tore his gray hair as he spoke, but he moved not the heart of Hector. His mother hard-by wept and moaned aloud as she borrowed her bosom and pointed to the breast which had suckled him. Hector, she cried, weeping bitterly in the wild, Hector, my son, spurn not this breast, but have pity upon me too. If I have ever given you comfort from my own bosom, think on it now, dear son, and come within the wall to protect us from this man. Stand not without to meet him. Should the wretch kill you, neither I nor your richly-dowered wife shall ever weep, dear offshoot of myself, over the bed on which you lie, for dogs will devour you at the ships of the Achaeans. Thus did the two, with many tears, employ their son. But they moved not the heart of Hector, and he stood his ground awaiting huge Achilles as he drew nearer towards them. As serpent in its den upon the mountains, full-fed with deadly poison, waits for the approach of man, he is filled with fury, and his eyes glare terribly as he goes writhing round his den. Even so, Hector leaned his shield against the tower that jutted out from the wall and stood where he was, undaunted. Alas, said he to himself in the heaviness of his heart, if I go within the gates, Polydamus will be the first to heap reproach upon me, for it was he that urged me to lead the Trojans back to the city on that awful night when Achilles came forth against us. I would not listen, but it would have been indeed better if I had done so. Now that my folly has destroyed the host, I dare not look Trojan men and Trojan women in the face, lest a worse man should say, Hector has ruined us by his self-confidence. Surely it would be better for me to return after having fought Achilles and slain him, or to die gloriously here before the city. What again, if I were to lay down my shield and helmet, lean my spear against the wall, and go straight up to noble Achilles? What if I were to promise to give up Helen, who was the fountainhead of all this war, and all the treasure that Alexandrus bought with him in his ships to Troy, ay, and to let the Achaeans divide the half of everything that the city contains among themselves? I might make the Trojans, by the mouth of their princes, take a solemn oath that they would hide nothing, but would divide into two shares all that is within this city. But why argue with myself in this way? Were I to go up to him, he would show me no kind of mercy. He would kill me then and there, as easily as though I were a when I had off my armor. There is no parleying with him from some rock or oak tree as young men and maidens prattle with one another. Better fight him at once, and learn to which of us Jove will vouchsafe victory. Thus did he stand and ponder, but Achilles came up to him as it were Mars himself, plumed lord of battle. From his right shoulder he brandished his temperal spear of pillion ash, and the bronze gleamed around him like flashing fire or the rising sun. Fear fell upon Hector as he beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he was, but fled in dismay from before the gates, while Achilles darted after him at his utmost speed. As a mountain falcon, swift as of all birds, swooped down upon some cowering dove, the dove flies before him, but the falcon with a shrill scream follows close after, resolved to have her. Even so did Achilles make straight for Hector with all his might, while Hector fled under the Trojan wall as fast as his limbs could take him. On they flew along the wagon road that ran hard by under the wall, past the lookout station, and past the weather-beaten wild fig tree, till they came to two fair springs which feed the river Skemander. One of these two springs is warm, and steam rises from it as smoke from a burning fire, but the other, even in summer, is as cold as hail or snow, and the ice that forms on the water. Here, hard by the springs, are the goodly washing troughs of stone, where in the time of peace before the coming of the Achaeans the wives and fair daughters of the Trojans used to wash their clothes. Past these did they fly, the one in front and the other giving chase behind him. Good was the man that fled, but better far was he that followed after, and swiftly indeed did they run, for the prize was no mere beast for sacrifice or bullock's hide, as it might be for a common foot-race, but they ran for the life of Hector. As horses in a chariot race speed round the turning-points when they are running from some great prize, a tripod or woman, at the games in honor of some dead hero, so did these two run full speed three times round the city of Priam. All the gods watched them, and the sire of gods and men was the first to speak. Alas! said he, my eyes behold a man who is dear to me, being pursued round the walls of Troy. My heart is full of pity for Hector, who has burned the thigh-bones of many a heifer in my honor, one while on the crest of many-vallied Ida, and again on the citadel of Troy, and now I see a noble Achilles in full pursuit of him round the city of Priam. What say you? Consider among yourselves and decide whether we shall now save him, or let him fall, valiant though he may be, before Achilles son of Peleus. Then Minerva said, Father, wielder of the lightning, lord of cloud and storm, what mean you? Would you pluck this mortal whose doom has long been decreed out of the jaws of death? Do as you will, but we others shall not be of a mind with you. And Jove answered, My child, Tritoborne, take heart. I did not speak in full earnest, and I will let you have your way. Do without let or hindrance, as you were minded. Thus did he urge Minerva, who was already eager, and down she darted from the topmost summit of Olympus. Achilles was still in full pursuit of Hector as a hound chasing a fawn when he had started from its covert on the mountains and hunched through glade and thicket. The fawn may try to elude him by crouching under cover of a bush, but he will send her out and follow her up until he gets her, even so there was no escape for Hector from the fleet son of Peleus. Whenever he made set to get near the Dardanian gates and under the walls that his people might help him by showering down weapons from above, Achilles would gain on him and head him back towards the plain, keeping himself always on the city side. As a man in a dream who fails to lay hands upon another whom he is pursuing, the one cannot escape nor the other overtake. Even so, neither could Achilles come up with Hector, nor Hector break away from Achilles. Nevertheless, he might even yet have escaped death had not the time come when Apollo, who thus far had sustained his strength and nerved his running, was now no longer to stay by him. Achilles made signs to the Achaean host, and shook his head to show that no man was to aim a dart at Hector, lest another might win the glory of having hit him and he might come in second. Then at last, as they were nearing the fountains for the fourth time, the father of all balanced his golden scales and placed a doom in each of them, one for Achilles and the other for Hector. As he held the scales by the middle, the doom of Hector fell down deep into the house of Hades, and thus Phoebus Apollo left him. Thereon Minerva went close up to the son of Peleus and said, Noble Achilles, favorite of the heaven, we two shall surely take back to the ships a triumph of the Achaeans by slaying Hector, for all his lust to battle. Do what Apollo may, as he lied groveling before his father, Aegis bearing Jove, Hector cannot escape us longer. Stay here and take breath, while I go up to him and persuade him to make a stand and fight you. Thus spoke Minerva. Achilles obeyed her gladly and stood still, leaning on his bronze-pointed ashen spear, while Minerva left him and went after Hector in the voice of Diaphobus. She came close up to him and said, Dear brother, I see you are hard-pressed by Achilles who is chasing you at full speed round the city of Priam. Let us await his onset and stand on our defense. And Hector answered, Diaphobus, you have always been dearest to me of all my brothers, children of Hecuba and Priam. But henceforth, I shall rate you more highly, inasmuch as you have ventured outside the wall for my sake, when all others remain inside. Then Minerva said, Dear brother, my father and mother went down on their knees and implored me, as did all my comrades, to remain inside. So great a fear has fallen upon them all. But I was in agony of grief when I beheld you. Now, therefore, let us two make a stand and fight, and let there be no keeping our spears in reserve, that we may learn whether Achilles shall kill us and bear off our spoils to the ships, or whether he shall fall before you. Thus did Minerva inveigle him by her cunning. And when the two were now close to one another, great Hector was the first to speak. I will no longer fly you, son of Peleus, said he, as I have been doing hitherto. Three times have I fled round the muddy city of Priam without daring to withstand you. But now let me either slay or be slain, for I am in the mind to face you. Let us then give pledges to one another by our gods, who are the fittest witnesses and guardians of all covenants. Let it be agreed between us, that if Jove vouchsafes me the longer stay, and I take your life, I am not to treat your dead body in any unseemly fashion. But when I have stripped you of your armor, I am to give your body to the Achaeans, and do you likewise. Achilles glared at him and answered, Fool, prep not to me about covenants. There can be no covenants between men and lions. Wolves and lambs can never be of one mind, but hate each other out and out and through. Therefore there can be no understanding between you and me, nor may there be any covenants between us, till one or other shall fall, glut and grim Mars with his life's blood. Put forth all your strength. You have need now to prove yourself indeed a bold soldier and man of war. You have no more chance, and palace Minerva will forthiest vanquish you by my spear. You shall now pay me in full for the grief you have caused me, on account of my comrades who you have killed in battle. He poised his spear as he spoke, hurled it. Hector saw it coming and avoided it. He watched it and crouched down so that it flew over his head and stuck in the ground beyond. Minerva then snatched it up and gave it back to Achilles without Hector seeing her. Hector thereon said to the son of Peleus, You have missed your aim, Achilles, peer of the gods, and Job has not revealed to you the hour of my doom, though you made sure that he had done so. You were a false-tongued liar when you deemed that I should forget my value and quell before you. You shall not drive spear into the back of a runaway. Drive it, should heaven so grant you the power. Drive it into me as I make straight towards you. And now for your own part, avoid my spear if you can. Would that you would receive the whole of it into your body. If you were once dead, the Trojans would find the war an easier matter, for it is you who have harmed them most. He poised his spear as he spoke and hurled it. His aim were true, for he hit the middle of Achilles' shield, but the spear rebounded from it and did not pierce it. Hector was angry when he saw that the weapon had sped from his hand in vain and stood there in dismay, for he had no second spear. With a loud cry he called Diaphobus and asked him for one, but there was no man. Then he saw the truth and said to himself, Lass, the gods have lured me on to my destruction. I deemed that the hero Diaphobus was by my side, but he is within the wall and Minerva has inveigled me. Death is now indeed exceedingly near at hand and there is no way out of it, for so Jove and his son Apollo the Far-Darter have willed it, though heretofore they have been ever ready to protect me. My doom has come upon me. Let me not then die ingloriously without a struggle, but let me first do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter. As he spoke, he drew the keen blade that hung so great and strong by his side, and gathering himself together, he sprang on Achilles like a soaring eagle which swoops down from the clouds onto some lamb or timid hare. Even so did Hector brandish his sword and spring upon Achilles. Achilles, manned with rage, darted towards him, with his wondrous shield before his breast and his gleaming helmet made with four layers of metal, nodding fiercely forward. The thick tresses of gold with which Vulcan had crested the helmet flouted round it, and as the evening star that shines brighter than all others through the stillness of the night, even such was the gleam of the spear which Achilles poised in his right hand, fraught with the death of noble Hector. He eyed his fair flesh over and over to see where he could best wound it, but it was all protected by the goodly armor of which Hector had spoiled Patroclus after he had slain him, save only the throat, where the collar bones divide the neck from the shoulders, and this is a most deadly place. Here, then, did Achilles strike him as he was coming towards him, and the point of his spear went right through the fleshy part of the neck, but it did not sever the windpipe, so that he could still speak. Hector fell headlong, and Achilles vaunted over him, saying, Hector, you deemed that you should come off scatheless when you were spoiling Patroclus, and reck not of myself who was not with him. Fool that you were, for I, his comrade, mightier far than he, was still left behind at the ships, and now I have laid you low. The Achaean shall give him all due funeral rites, while dogs and vultures shall work their will upon yourself. Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, I pray you, by your life and knees, and by your parents, let not dogs devour me at the ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of gold and bronze which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body home, that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when I am dead. Achilles glared at him and answered, Dog, talk not to me neither of knees nor of parents, would that I could be assured of being able to cut your flesh into pieces and eat it raw, for the ill you have done me, as I am that nothing shall save you from the dogs. It shall not be, though they bring ten or twentyfold ransom and weigh it out for me on the spot, with promise of yet more hereafter. Though Priam's son of Dardanus should bid them offer me your weight in gold, even so your mother shall never lay you out and make lament over the son she bore, but dogs and vultures shall eat you utterly up. Hector, with his dying breath, then said, I know you what you are, and was sure that I should not move you, for your heart is iron. Look to it that I bring not heaven's anger upon you at the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you at the Scythian gates. When he had thus said the shrouds of death enfolded him, whereupon his soul went out of him and flew down to the house of Hades, lamenting its sad fate that it should enjoy youth and strength no longer. But Achilles said, speaking to the dead body, Die. For my part I will accept my fate, whensoever Jove and the other gods he fit descend it. As he spoke, he drew his spear from the body and set it on one side. Then he stripped the blood-stained armor from Hector's shoulders, while the other Achaeans came running up to view his wondrous strength and beauty, and no one came near him without giving him a fresh wound. Then would one turn on his neighbor and say, It is easier to handle Hector now than when he was flinging fire onto our ships. And as he spoke, he would thrust his spear into him anew. When Achilles had done spoiling Hector of his armor, he stood among the Argives and said, My friends, princes and counselors of the Argives, now that heaven has out-saved us to overcome this man who has done us more hurt than all others together, consider whether we should not attack the city in force, and discover in what mind the children's may be. We should thus learn whether they will desert their city now that Hector has fallen, or will hold out even though he is no longer living. But why argue with myself in this way, while Patroclus is still lying at the ships unburied and unmourned, he whom I can never forget so long as I am alive and my strength falls not? Though men forget their dead when once they are within the house of Hades, yet not even there will I forget the comrade whom I have lost. Now therefore, Achaean youths, let us raise the song of victory and go back to the ships taking this man along with us. For we have achieved a mighty triumph and have slain noble Hector, to whom Trojans prayed throughout their city as though you were a god. On this he treated the body of Hector with contumely. He pierced the sinews at the back of both his feet from heel to ankle, and passed the thongs of oxide through the slits he had made. Thus he made the body fast to the chariot, letting the head trail upon the ground. Then when he had put the goodly armor on the chariot and had mounted himself, he lashed his horses and they flew forward, nothing lost. The dust rose from Hector as he was being dragged along. His dark hair flew all abroad, and his head, once so comely, was laid low on earth, for Jove had now delivered him into the hands of his foes to do him outrage in his own land. Thus was the head of Hector being dishonored in the dust. His mother tore her hair and flung her veil from her with the loud cries she looked upon her son. His father made piteous moan, and throughout the city the people fell to weeping and wailing. It was as though the whole of frowning Ilias was being smirched with fire. Hardly could the people hold Priam back in his hot haste to rush without the gates of the city. He groveled in the mire and besought them, calling each one of them by his name. "'Let be, my friends,' he cried, "'and for all your sorrows suffer me to go single-handed to the ships of the Achaeans. Let me beseech this cruel and terrible man, if maybe he will respect the feeling of his fellow men and have compassion on my old age. His own father is even such another as myself, Peleus, who bred him and reared him to be the bane of Astrogens, and of myself more than all others. Many a son of mine has he slain in the flower of his youth, and yet, grieve for these as I may, I do so for one. Hector, more than for them all, and the bitterness of my sorrow will bring me down to the house of Hades. Would that he had died in my arms for both his ill-starred mother who bore him and myself should have had the comfort of weeping and mourning over him.' Thus did he speak with many tears, and all the people of the city joined as his lament. Hecuba then raised a cry of welling among the Trojans. "'Alas, my son,' she cried, "'what have I left to live for now that you are no more? Night and day did I glory in you throughout the city, for you were a tower of strength all in Troy, and both men and women alike held you as a god. So long as you lived, you were their pride. But now death and destruction have fallen upon you.' Hector's wife had as yet heard nothing, for no one had come to tell her that her husband had remained without the gates. She was at her loom in an inner part of the house, weaving a double purple web and embroidering it with many flowers. She told her maids to set a large tripod on the fire, so as to have a warm bath ready for Hector when he came out of battle. Poor woman! She knew not that he was now beyond the reach of baths, and that Minerva had him laid low by the hand of Achilles. She heard the cry coming as from the wall and trembled in every limb. The shuttle fell from her hands, and again she spoke to her woman. "'Two of you,' she said, "'come with me, that I may learn what has been fallen.' I heard the voice of my husband's honored mother. My own heart beats as though it would come into my mouth, and my limbs refuse to carry me. Some great misfortune for Priam's children must be at hand. May I never live to hear it, but I greatly feel that Achilles has cut off the retreat of brave Hector, and has chased him on to the plain where he was single-handed. I fear he may have put an end to this reckless daring which possessed my husband, who would never remain with the body of his men, but would dash on far in front, foremost of them all in valor.' Her heart beat fast, and as she spoke she flew from the house like a maniac, with her waiting women following after. When she reached the battlements and the crowd of people, she stood looking out upon the wall and saw Hector being borne away in front of the city, the horses dragging him without heed or care over the ground towards the ships of the Achaeans. Her eyes were then shrouded as with the darkness of night, and she fell fainting backwards. She tore the retiring from her head and flung it from her. The front lent a net with a plaited band in the veil which golden Venus had given her on the day when Hector took her with him from the house of Edeon, after having given countless gifts of wooing for her sake. Her husband's sister and the wives of his brothers crowded round her and supported her, for she was fain to die in her distraction. When she again presently breathed and came to herself, she sobbed and made lament among the Trojans, saying, "'Woe is me, O Hector, woe! Indeed, that to share a common lot we were born! You with Troy, the house of Priam, and I with thieves under wooded mountains of Placus and the house of Edeon, who brought me up when I was a child! Ill-starred sire of an ill-starred daughter, would that he had never begotten me! You are now going into the house of Hades under a secret place of the earth, and you leave me a sorrowing widow in your house. The child of which you and I are the unhappy parents is yet a mere infant. Now that you are gone, O Hector, you can do nothing for him, nor he for you. Even though he escape the horrors of this woeful war with the Chaeans, yet sell his life henceforth be one of labor and sorrow, for others will seize his lands. The day that robs a child of his parents severs him from his own kind. His head is bowed, his cheeks are wet with tears, and he will go about destitute among the friends of his fathers, plucking one by the cloak and another by the shirt. Some one or another of these may be so far pity him as to hold the cup for a moment towards him and let him moisten his lips. But he must not drink enough to wet the roof of his mouth. Then one whose parents are alive will drive him from the table with blows and angry words. Out with you, he will say! You have no father here! And the child will go crying back to his widowed mother. He, Asteonyx, who erewhile would sit upon his father's knees and have none but the daintiest and choicest morsels set before him, when he had played till he was tired and went to sleep, he would lie in a bed, in the arms of his nurse, on a soft couch, knowing neither want nor care. Whereas now that he has lost his father, his lot will be full of hardship. He, whom the Trojans named Asteonyx because you, O Hector, were the only defence of their gates and their battlements. The wriggling, writhing worms will now eat you at the ships, far from your parents, when the dogs have glutted themselves upon you. You will lie naked, although in your house you have fine and goodly raiment made by the hands of women. This will I now burn. It is of no use to you, for you can never again wear it, and thus you will have respect shown you by the Trojans, both men and women." In such wise did she cry aloud amid her tears, and the women joined in her lament.