The Ransom of Hector

Chapter summary

When the games are over, the army disperses to supper and sleep, but Achilles does not sleep: he weeps for Patroclus, recalls his friend's strength and all that the two suffered together, turns from side to side, and ends up walking along the beach. When dawn appears, he yokes the horses, ties Hector behind the chariot, drags the body three times around the tomb of Patroclus and leaves it face down in the dust, and repeats this every day. Apollo, moved by pity, protects the body from all disfigurement and covers it with the golden aegis. The gods, who look at the scene with compassion, urge Hermes to steal the corpse. All agree, except Hera, Poseidon, and Athena, who continue to hate Troy since Paris insulted the goddesses and preferred the one who offered him desire.

On the twelfth morning, Apollo accuses the gods before everyone: Hector burned thigh pieces of oxen and goats for them, and they do not dare even to save the dead man, so that his wife, mother, son, Priam, and the people may burn him with due honors; they prefer to support the baneful Achilles, who has lost pity and reverent shame and acts like a lion in search of flesh. Men too lose brothers and sons, he says, but they weep and then cease, because the Moirai gave them a heart that endures; Achilles, by contrast, drags the husband of a wife and the son of a mother, and outrages only the deaf earth. Hera answers angrily that Hector and Achilles cannot have equal honor: Hector is mortal and was nursed by a woman, while Achilles is the son of a goddess whom she herself raised and gave to Peleus, and all the gods went to the wedding, Apollo included, lyre in hand. Zeus calms her: Achilles will have greater honor, but Hector was the mortal most dear to the gods at Ilium, and altars, libations, and the smoke of sacrifice never failed him. Stealing the body, however, will not be possible, because Achilles' mother is always at his side, by day and by night. Zeus then sends for Thetis, to give her advice that will lead her son to accept Priam's ransom.

Iris plunges between Samos and Imbros and finds Thetis in a cave, surrounded by the other sea goddesses, weeping over the fate of her son, who is to die at Troy, far from his homeland. Thetis hesitates, because she is ashamed to appear among the immortals in such grief, but obeys, wrapped in a dark-blue veil, and climbs to Olympus, where Athena yields her place beside Zeus and Hera passes her a golden cup. Zeus explains that for nine days the gods have been quarreling over the corpse, that some want to steal it, and that he himself prefers to give that glory to Achilles, to keep her respect and friendship. He tells her to say to her son that the gods are angry with him, Zeus more than all, because he keeps Hector by the ships without giving him back, and that Iris will lead Priam to ransom him with gifts that will soothe Achilles' heart. Thetis goes down to the tent and finds him groaning, among companions preparing the meal. She sits near him, strokes him with her hand, and asks how long he will consume his heart without eating or sleeping, reminding him that death and mighty fate are already close to him. She conveys Zeus's message and asks him to release the body and accept the ransom. Achilles answers that whoever brings the ransom may take away the corpse, if the Olympian himself orders it willingly.

Zeus sends Iris to Troy with instructions for Priam: he is to go alone, with only an older herald to guide the mules and wagon and bring the body back, without fear of death, because Hermes will guide him, and Achilles is neither foolish nor careless nor impious and will spare with care the man who supplicates. Iris finds the house in lament: Priam's sons, seated around their father, wet their garments with tears; the old man, wrapped in his cloak, has his head and neck covered with dung, which he himself gathered by rolling on the ground; the daughters and daughters-in-law weep for the many good men the Argives have killed. Iris speaks softly, and a tremor seizes the old man's limbs. She tells him to take heart, repeats Zeus's order, and says she brings no evil. Priam orders his sons to prepare the mule cart and a basket, goes down to the cedar chamber where he keeps his treasures, and calls Hecuba: he tells her the message of an Olympian messenger, says his spirit urges him toward the ships, and asks what she thinks. Hecuba cries out and asks where the good sense has gone that made him admired by foreigners and subjects: how can he go alone before the eyes of the man who killed so many of his sons, with an iron heart? Achilles will show him no pity or respect. She proposes that the two weep at home, far from the son, for Moira spun Hector's destiny thus at his birth: to satisfy the dogs far from his parents. She wishes to eat Achilles' liver in payment for the son, who died without retreating, standing before the Trojans. Priam asks her not to hold him back nor be a bird of ill omen within the house, because if the order had come from a seer or a priest he would call it a lie, but he himself heard the goddess and saw her face to face. He goes, and if it is his destiny to die beside the ships, let Achilles kill him at once, after he has embraced his son and satisfied his desire for weeping.

Priam opens the chests and takes out twelve robes, twelve plain cloaks, twelve rugs, twelve white blankets, and twelve tunics, ten talents of gold, two tripods, four cauldrons, and a cup that the Thracians gave him when he was among them. He spares nothing, because he wants to ransom his son. He drives away with insults the Trojans who surround him in the portico: have they no mourning at home that they come to add theirs? Zeus has given him the grief of losing his best son, and now the Achaeans will kill more easily, but he prefers to go down to Hades before seeing the city sacked. He chases them with his staff and shouts at the sons he has left: Helenus, Paris, Agathon, Pammon, Antiphonus, Polites, Deiphobus, Hippothous, and Agavus, whom he calls worthless and shameless, and wishes that all had died by the ships in place of Hector. He laments the sons that Ares killed, Mestor, Troilus, and Hector, who seemed to be the son of a god, and says that only liars, dancers, and lamb rustlers are left. The sons, afraid, prepare the chariot, the mules, and the horses, and load the ransom. Hecuba arrives with a heavy heart, bringing wine in a golden cup, and asks Priam to pour a libation to Zeus and pray to return alive, since his spirit drives him to the ships against her will; let him ask Zeus for a sign, the bird most dear to the god, coming from the right, and if it does not come, she does not advise him to go. He agrees, washes his hands, takes the cup, and prays in the middle of the courtyard, asking that Zeus lead him to Achilles as one dear and worthy of pity. Zeus hears and sends a black eagle, a hunter, with wings as broad as the door of a rich man's chamber. She crosses the city on the right, and everyone rejoices. Priam mounts the chariot, leading the horses behind, while Idaeus guides the mules in front, and the relatives follow him weeping as if he were going to die.

On the plain, the sons and sons-in-law return to the city. Zeus, seeing the two alone, pities the old man and sends Hermes to be his guide to Achilles, unseen by any Achaean. Hermes binds on his golden sandals, takes the wand that enchants the eyes of men and wakes those who sleep, flies to Troy, and presents himself as a youth with the first beard. When Priam and the herald stop at the tomb of Ilus to water the animals at nightfall, the herald sees the figure and warns the king: flee by chariot or beg on your knees. Priam freezes with fear, his hair standing on end. Hermes takes his hand and asks where he is going with so many treasures, at night, among enemies, being old, with an old man as his companion; he says he will not harm him and will protect him, because he is reminded of his own father. Priam sees in this the hand of a god. Hermes asks whether he is sending his goods far away to keep them safe, or whether the Trojans are abandoning the city in fear, now that the best man has died. Priam asks who he is, and the false youth answers that the old man is testing him by asking about Hector, whom he has seen many times in battle; when Hector reached the ships, the Myrmidons stood still, admiring him, because Achilles, angry at Agamemnon, did not let them fight. He says he is a squire of Achilles, a Myrmidon, son of Polyctor, the seventh of seven brothers, and that he came from the ships because the next morning the Achaeans will fight around the city, impatient to wait. Priam then asks whether Hector is still by the ships or whether Achilles has already cut him to pieces for the dogs. Hermes answers that neither dogs nor birds have eaten him: he lies beside Achilles' ship, for twelve days; the flesh does not rot and the worms do not touch it, and Achilles drags him each morning around the friend's tomb without managing to spoil him. The gods look after him even in death, because he was very dear to them. Priam rejoices and offers a cup to the guide, who refuses: he does not accept gifts in secret from Achilles, whom he fears and respects, but will guide him to Argos if need be. He leaps onto the chariot, takes the reins, and infuses strength into the animals. At the trench and the wall, the guards prepare their supper. Hermes pours sleep over them all, opens the gates, removes the bars, and leads Priam and the gifts inside.

They reach the tent of Achilles, tall, made of fir by the Myrmidons, enclosed by a courtyard of stakes, with a single bar on the door that three Achaeans closed and three opened, but that Achilles closed alone. Hermes opens the door, enters with the gifts, and on getting down from the chariot reveals who he is: his father sent him as escort, and now he returns, because it is not fitting for an immortal god to be seen openly favoring mortals before Achilles. He tells Priam to go in, take the knees of the Pelides, and plead with him in the name of his father, mother, and son, to move his heart. Priam leaves Idaeus with the mules and goes straight to where Achilles is seated, with Automedon and Alcimus serving, and the table still set, because he has just finished eating. He enters unseen, embraces Achilles' knees, and kisses the terrible hands that killed so many of his sons. Achilles is astonished at the old man, as one is astonished when a man who killed someone in his own country and fled to another land arrives at a rich house, and the others exchange glances. Priam asks him to remember his father, of the same age as he, on the baneful threshold of old age, who perhaps is mistreated by neighbors with no one to defend him, but who rejoices every day to hear that his son is alive. He, Priam, had fifty sons when the Achaeans arrived, nineteen of them from the same mother, and Ares killed nearly all of them; the only one who guarded the city, Hector, was killed by Achilles in defense of the homeland, and it is for him that Priam comes, with an uncountable ransom. He asks Achilles to respect the gods, to take pity on him and think of his father, and says that he has endured what no other mortal on earth has endured: to bring to his lips the hand of the slayer of his sons. The speech awakens in Achilles the desire to weep for his father: he takes the old man's hand and gently pushes him away. The two remember: Priam weeps for Hector, fallen at Achilles' feet; Achilles weeps for his father and, at times, for Patroclus, and their groaning fills the house.

When Achilles has had his fill of weeping and the desire has left his chest and limbs, he rises from the throne, lifts the old man by the hand, pitying his white head and beard, and tells him that he has already endured many woes: how did he have the courage to come alone before the eyes of the man who killed so many of his sons? He has an iron heart. He has him sit and let his sorrows rest in his breast, for icy lament brings no benefit, and the gods spun for wretched mortals a life of distress, while they themselves live without care. He says that two jars stand on the floor of Zeus, one of evils and one of goods. To whom Zeus gives from both, mixing them, he sometimes meets evil, sometimes good; to whom he gives only evils, he makes an object of scorn, and a wicked hunger pursues him over the divine earth, honored neither by gods nor by men. The gods gave Peleus, from his birth, wealth, power over the Myrmidons, and a goddess for a wife, but they also gave him the misfortune of having no other children than one, destined to die young, whom he does not tend in old age, because Achilles is far away, at Troy, causing grief to Priam and his sons. He recalls that Priam was once happy, lord of all between Lesbos, Phrygia, and the Hellespont, and that now there is only combat and death around the city. He asks him to endure and not surrender without end to weeping, for he gains nothing from it, nor will he make his son rise.

Priam refuses to sit while Hector lies uncared for in the tent, and asks Achilles to release him at once, so that he may see him, accept the ransom, and return to his land, since Achilles has spared him. Achilles looks at him with anger and asks him not to provoke him: he has already decided to release Hector, because his mother brought him the message from Zeus. He also knows that a god led Priam to the ships, since no mortal, not even a young one, would have passed the guards or forced the bar. Let the old man not stir his spirit further amid his sorrows, so that Achilles does not spare him, even as a suppliant, and does not offend Zeus's orders. Priam fears and obeys. Achilles leaves the tent like a lion, with the two servants he has valued most since Patroclus's death, Automedon and Alcimus. They unyoke the animals, make the herald sit, and unload the ransom, leaving two cloaks and a tunic to wrap the dead man. Achilles orders the women to wash and anoint the body away from Priam's sight, for fear that the father, seeing his son, will not contain his grief and anger, and that Achilles himself will become enraged and kill him, offending Zeus. Afterward, he himself lifts the body and places it on the bier, and the companions carry it to the chariot. Achilles groans and calls Patroclus: he asks that his friend not be angry if, in Hades, he learns that he returned Hector to his father, because the ransom was worthy, and he promises to give him a share of it.

Back in the tent, Achilles sits on the same throne and tells Priam that his son is released and lying on the bier, that he will see him in the morning, and that now they should think about supper. He recalls Niobe, who lost twelve children, six daughters and six sons, for boasting before Leto that she had more children than she did: Apollo and Artemis killed them; the bodies lay for nine days unburied because Zeus turned the peoples to stone; the gods buried them on the tenth day, and Niobe, weary of weeping, remembered to eat, and today, a stone on a mountain in Sipylus, she still digests the sorrows the gods gave her. Achilles slaughters a white sheep, the companions prepare it, Automedon serves the bread, and Achilles distributes the meat. After eating, Priam admires the size and bearing of Achilles, like a god, and Achilles admires the handsome face of Priam and listens to his words. When they have had their fill of looking at one another, Priam asks for a bed, because he has not closed his eyes since Hector died, rolling in the dung of the courtyard, and only now has he eaten and drunk. Achilles orders two beds set up in the portico, with purple rugs, and tells Priam, mockingly, to sleep outside, so that no Achaean counselor sees him, informs Agamemnon, and delays the ransom. He asks how many days Priam wants for the funeral, so that he himself and the army may hold back all that time. Priam asks for nine days of mourning at home, burial on the tenth with a feast, the tomb on the eleventh, and war on the twelfth, if it is necessary, because the city is surrounded and the wood is far away, which frightens the Trojans. Achilles agrees, promises to suspend the fighting for the time requested, and takes the old man's right hand by the wrist to dispel his fear. Priam and the herald sleep in the portico; Achilles sleeps at the back of the tent, with Briseis beside him.

Everyone sleeps except Hermes, who thinks about how to get Priam out of the ships without being seen by the guards. He stands over the old man's head and wakes him: how can he sleep without fear among enemies, just because Achilles spared him? He has won back his son and given a great deal, but the sons who remain would have to pay three times as much to ransom him alive if Agamemnon or the other Achaeans learned he was there. Priam is afraid and wakes the herald. Hermes harnesses horses and mules, leads them through the camp without being noticed, and at the ford of the Xanthus returns to Olympus. At dawn the two enter Troy, with the body on the mules, amid moans. No one recognizes them until Cassandra, from the height of Pergamos, sees her father standing in the chariot and the dead man on the bier. She cries through the city that the Trojans should come and see Hector, if they rejoiced when he returned alive from battle, for he was the joy of the city and of the people. No man or woman stays at home. Near the gates, before all the others, the wife and the mother hurl themselves onto the chariot and tear their hair, touching the head of the dead man, while the crowd weeps. They would weep until sunset if Priam did not ask for passage: once he has taken his son home, they will have their chance to be satisfied with mourning. In the palace, the body is laid on a carved bed, with singers around it to lead the lament.

Andromache opens the lament, with Hector's head between her hands. She mourns being left a widow, with a son still a child, and foresees the fall of the city, because her husband was the one who guarded it: the women will be carried off in the ships, and the boy will either serve a harsh master or be hurled from a tower by an Achaean whose brother, father, or son Hector killed. She says that his father was not gentle in war, and that she is the most wretched of all, because Hector, dying, did not stretch out his hand to her or speak a single wise word she could remember by night and by day. Hecuba goes on: Hector was the dearest of her sons, and the gods cared for him even after death, unlike the other sons whom Achilles sold beyond the sea; now he lies fresh and whole in the house, as if he had been killed by the gentle arrows of Apollo. Helen is the third to weep: Hector was the dearest of her brothers-in-law, and in twenty years he never spoke an unkind word to her; on the contrary, he calmed with gentleness anyone who insulted her, whether brothers-in-law, sisters-in-law, or the mother-in-law, because the father-in-law was always kind. She weeps for Hector and for herself, because in all of Troy no one else is kind to her now, and everyone fears her. The people groan. Priam orders the Trojans to bring wood into the city and not to fear an ambush, because Achilles promised not to attack before the twelfth dawn. For nine days they gather wood; on the tenth they carry Hector, set him on the tall pyre, and light the fire. The next morning the people gather, put out the pyre with wine, and his brothers and companions gather the white bones, weeping, and place them in a golden urn wrapped in purple cloths. They put the urn in a deep pit, cover it with large stones, raise the tomb quickly, and post sentries so that the Achaeans do not attack before the time. Then they return to the city and hold a feast in the palace of Priam. So the poem ends.