Gesture of asking for protection or pity, in which the suppliant embraces the knees of the one who can grant it or touches his chin. It is the poem's central rite: Chryses asks for his daughter back, Lycaon and Tros embrace Achilles' knees, Hector beseeches the victor, and Priam, in the last book, kisses Achilles' hands. The response to the gesture measures the pity of the one who receives it.
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