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BOOK THE TWENTY-SECOND.

 

ARGUMENT.

Hector persists in remaining outside the walls, despite the entreaties of his father. He flies thrice round Troy, fights, and is slain by Achilles, who drags his body to the fleet at the wheels of his chariot. The lamentations of his wife and parents follow.

Thus they, indeed, driven by fright through the city, like fawns, were refreshing themselves from sweat, and were drinking and allaying their thirst, leaning against the handsome battlements; but the Greeks were coming near the wall, resting their shields upon their shoulders. But Hector his destructive fate fettered to remain there, before Ilium and the Scæan gates. And Phœbus Apollo thus addressed the son of Peleus:

"Why, O son of Peleus, dost thou pursue me, an immortal god, with swift feet, thyself being a mortal? Nor yet hast thou at all discovered that I am a god; but thou incessantly ragest. For certainly the labor of the Trojans is not now a care to thee, whom thou hast routed, and who are now inclosed within their city, while thou art turned aside hither. Neither canst thou slay me, since I am not mortal."

But him swift-footed Achilles, greatly indignant,^[1] addressed:

"Thou hast injured me, O Far-darter, most destructive of all gods, having now turned me away hither from the wall; certainly many had now seized the earth with their

1. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 708:

   ⁠———"On th' other side
   ⁠Incensed with indignation Satan stood
   ⁠Unterrified, and like a comet burn'd,
   ⁠That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge
   ⁠In th' arctic sky, and from his horrid hair
   ⁠Shakes pestilence and war."