Homer ILIAD : Rhapsody 22

Page 3

"O Hector, do not, my beloved son, await this man alone, without others; lest that thou shouldst speedily draw on fate, subdued by the son of Peleus; since he is much more powerful. Cruel! would that he were [only] as dear to the gods as he is to me; quickly then would the dogs and vultures devour him lying low; surely sad grief would then depart from my heart. He who has made me deprived of many and brave sons, slaying, and selling them into far-distant islands. For even now the Trojans being shut up in the city, I cannot see my two sons, Lycaon and Polydorus, whom Laothoe bore to me, queen among women. But if indeed they live at the camp, surely we will afterwards redeem them with brass and with gold; for it is within; for aged Altes, renowned by fame, gave many things to his daughter. But if they are already dead, and in the mansions of Hades, grief will be to my soul, and to their mother, we who gave them birth. But to the other people the grief will be shorter, if thou shouldst not die, subdued by Achilles. But come inside the wall, O my son, that thou mayest save the Trojan men and women, nor afford great glory to the son of Peleus, and thou thyself be deprived of thy dear life. Moreover, pity me, wretched, yet still preserving my senses,[697] unhappy, whom the Saturnian sire will destroy by grievous fate, upon the threshold of old age, having seen many evils,[698] my sons slain, my daughters dragged captives, their chambers plundered, and my infant children dashed upon the earth in dire hostility, and my daughters-in-law torn away by the pernicious hands of the Greeks. And myself perhaps the last—the raw-devouring dogs, whom I have nourished in my palaces, the attendants of my table, the guards of my portals, will tear at the entrance of the gates,[699] after some one, having stricken or wounded me with the sharp brass, shall take away my soul from my limbs; and who, drinking my blood, will lie in the porch, infuriated in mind. To a young man, indeed, slain in battle, lacerated with the sharp brass, it is altogether becoming to lie, for all things are honourable to him dead, whatever may appear; but when dogs dishonour the grey head, the hoary beard, and privy members of an old man slain, that is indeed most pitiable among wretched mortals."

[Footnote 697: I.e. alive. Cf. xxiii.]

[Footnote 698: On the proverbial woes of Priam, cf. Aristotle Eth. i. 9, 10; and Ennius, fragm. Andromach. p. 236--9, with the notes of Columna, ed. Hessel.]

[Footnote 699: Cf. Virg. Aen. ii. 550, sqq., who has imitated this passage in his description of the death of Priam.]

Previous / First / Next Page of this Rhapsody

HOMER'S ILIAD COMPLETE

Rhapsody 22

Homer Bilingual Anthology Studies Homer in Print

Learned Freeware