’King Priam ate, and he looked at Achilles and he saw how great and how goodly he was.  And Achilles looked at Priam and he saw how noble and how kingly he looked.  And this was the first time that Achilles and Priam the King of Troy really saw each other.’

’When they gazed on each other King Priam said, “When thou goest to lie down, lord Achilles, permit me to lie down also.  Not once have my eyelids closed in sleep since my son Hector lost his life.  And now I have tasted bread and meat and wine for the first time since, and I could sleep."’

’Achilles ordered that a bed be made in the portico for King Priam and his henchman, but before they went Achilles said:  “Tell me, King, and tell me truly, for how many days dost thou desire to make a funeral for Hector?  For so many days space I will keep back the battle from the City so that thou mayst make the funeral in peace.”  “For nine days we would watch beside Hector’s body and lament for him; on the tenth day we would have the funeral; on the eleventh day we would make the barrow over him, and on the twelfth day we would fight,” King Priam said.  “Even for twelve days I will hold the battle back from the City,” said Achilles.’

’Then Priam and his henchman went to rest.  But in the middle of the night the young man who had guided him to the hut of Achilles—­the god Hermes he was—­appeared before his bed and bade him arise and go to the wagon and yoke the mules and drive back to the City with the body of Hector.  Priam aroused his henchman and they went out and yoked the mules and mounted the wagon, and with Hermes to guide them they drove back to the City.’

’And Achilles on his bed thought of his own fate—­how he too would die in battle, and how for him there would be no father to make lament.  But he would be laid where he had asked his friends to lay him—­beside Patroklos—­and over them both the Greeks would raise a barrow that would be wondered at in after times.’

[Illustration]

’So Achilles thought.  And afterwards the arrow fired by Paris struck him as he fought before the gate of the City, and he was slain even on the place where he slew Hector.  But the Greeks carried off his body and his armour and brought them back to the ships.  And Achilles was lamented over, though not by old Peleus, his father.  From the depths of the sea came Thetis, his goddess-mother, and with her came the Maidens of the Sea.  They covered the body of Achilles with wonderful raiment and over it they lamented for seventeen days and seventeen nights.  On the eighteenth day he was laid in the grave beside Patroklos, his dear friend, and over them both the Greeks raised a barrow that was wondered at in the after-times.’

XXI

Now Hector’s sister was the first to see her father coming in the dawn across the plain of Troy with the wagon upon which his body was laid.  She came down to the City and she cried through the streets, “O men and women of Troy, ye who often went to the gates to meet Hector coming back with victory, come now to the gates to receive Hector dead."’