him. But swift-footed Achilles, after he had despoiled him, standing among the Greeks, spoked winged words:
"O friends, leaders and princes of the Greeks, since the gods have granted us to subdue this hero, he who did as many mischiefs, as did not all the others together; come! let us make trial round the city with our arms, that we may learn concerning the Trojans, what mind they have; whether they are about to desert the citadel, he being slain, or intend to remain, Hector being no more. But why does my mind within me deliberate these things? Patroclus lies at the ships, an unwept, unburied corpse; and him I shall never forget, as long as I am among the living, and my dear knees move for me; and though they forget the dead in Hades, yet will I remember my beloved comrade even there. But come now, ye youths of the Greeks, singing a pæan,[1] let us return to the hollow ships, and let us bring him; we bear back great glory: we have slain noble Hector, whom the Trojans, throughout the city, worshiped as a god."
He spoke, and was meditating unseemly deeds against noble Hector. He perforated the tendons of both his feet behind, from the heel to the instep, and fastened in them leather thongs, and bound him from the chariot; but left his head to be trailed along. Then ascending his chariot, and taking up the splendid armor, he lashed [the horses] to go on, and they, not unwilling, flew. But the dust arose from him while trailed along, and his azure locks around approached [the ground],[2] and his entire head, once graceful, lay in the dust; for Jupiter had then granted to his enemies, to dishonor him in his own fatherland. Thus indeed his whole head was defiled with dust; but his mother plucked out her hair, and cast away her shining vail, and wept very loudly, having beheld her son. And his dear father groaned piteously, and all the people around were occupied in wailing and lamentation through the city; and it was very like to this, as if all Ilium, from its summit, were smoldering in fire. With difficulty indeed did the people detain the old
