’She ran from her chamber and out into the street and came to the battlements where the people stood watching.  She saw the chariot of Achilles dashing off towards the ships and she knew that it dragged the dead body of Hector.  Then darkness came before her eyes and she fainted away.  Her husband’s sisters and his brothers’ wives thronged round her and lifted her up.  And at last her life came back to her and she wailed for Hector, “O my husband,” she cried, “for misery were we two born!  Now thou hast been slain by Achilles and I am left husbandless!  And ah, woe for our young child!  Hard-hearted strangers shall oppress him when he lives amongst people that care not for him or his.  And he will come weeping to me, his widowed mother, who will live forever sorrowful thinking upon where thou liest, Hector, by the ships of those who slew thee."’

’So Andromache spoke and all the women of Troy joined in her grief and wept for great Hector who had protected their city.’

XX

Now that Hector was dead, King Priam, his father, had only one thought in his mind, and that was to get his body from Achilles and bring it into the City so that it might be treated with the honour befitting the man who had been the guardian of Troy.  And while he sat in his grief, thinking of his noble son lying so far from those who would have wept over him, behold! there appeared before him Iris, the messenger of Zeus, the greatest of the Gods.  Iris said to him, “King, thou mayst ransom from Achilles the body of Hector, thy noble son.  Go thou thyself to the hut of Achilles and bring with thee great gifts to offer him.  Take with thee a wagon that thou mayst bring back in it the body, and let only one old henchman go with thee to drive the mules."’

’Then Priam, when he heard this, arose and went into his treasure chamber and took out of his chests twelve beautiful robes; twelve bright-coloured cloaks; twelve soft coverlets and ten talents of gold; he took, too, four cauldrons and two tripods and a wonderful goblet that the men of Thrace had given him when they had come on an embassy to his city.  Then he called upon his sons and he bade them make ready the wagon and load it with the treasures he had brought out of his treasure-chamber.’

’When the wagon was loaded and the mules were yoked under it, and when Priam and his henchman had mounted the seats, Hekabe, the queen, Priam’s wife and the mother of Hector, came with wine and with a golden cup that they might pour out an offering to the gods before they went on their journey; that they might know whether the gods indeed favoured it, or whether Priam himself was not going into danger.  King Priam took the cup from his wife and he poured out wine from it, and looking towards heaven he prayed, “O Father Zeus, grant that I may find welcome under Achilles’ roof, and send, if thou wilt, a bird of omen, so that seeing it with mine own eyes I may go on my way trusting that no harm will befall me."’