Book XXII The Death of Hector by Homer The Iliad - Book XXII - Translated by Samuel Butler Lyrics
Line 375-405
Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, "I pray you by your life and knees, and by your parents, let not dogs devour me at the ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of gold and bronze which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body home, that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when I am dead."
Achilles glared at him and answered, "Dog, talk not to me neither of knees nor parents; would that I could be as sure of being able to cut your flesh into pieces and eat it raw, for the ill have done me, as I am that nothing shall save you from the dogs- it shall not be, though they bring ten or twenty-fold ransom and weigh it out for me on the spot, with promise of yet more hereafter. Though Priam son of Dardanus should bid them offer me your weight in gold, even so your mother shall never lay you out and make lament over the son she bore, but dogs and vultures shall eat you utterly up."
Hector with his dying breath then said, "I know you what you are, and was sure that I should not move you, for your heart is hard as iron; look to it that I bring not heaven's anger upon you on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you at the Scaean gates."
When he had thus said the shrouds of death enfolded him, whereon his soul went out of him and flew down to the house of Hades, lamenting its sad fate that it should en' youth and strength no longer. But Achilles said, speaking to the dead body, "Die; for my part I will accept my fate whensoever Jove and the other gods see fit to send it."
Work Cited:
Hector
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/259212/Hector
Paris
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/443614/Paris
Apollo
The Encyclopedia Mythica:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/apollo.html
Achilles
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/3581/Achilles
The Importance of Funeral Rite in Ancient Greece
by Judy Brown, Demand Media
http://people.opposingviews.com/importance-funeral-rites-ancient-greece-5321.html
Hades
The Greek Mythology
http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Hades/hades.html
The Scaean Gate
Boston College
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/NEWhp252/halli/scaean.html
The Shameless: The Canine and Feminine in Ancient Greece
By Cristiana Franco
Page 208, Google Book
Then Hector said, as the life ebbed out of him, "I pray you by your life and knees, and by your parents, let not dogs devour me at the ships of the Achaeans, but accept the rich treasure of gold and bronze which my father and mother will offer you, and send my body home, that the Trojans and their wives may give me my dues of fire when I am dead."
Achilles glared at him and answered, "Dog, talk not to me neither of knees nor parents; would that I could be as sure of being able to cut your flesh into pieces and eat it raw, for the ill have done me, as I am that nothing shall save you from the dogs- it shall not be, though they bring ten or twenty-fold ransom and weigh it out for me on the spot, with promise of yet more hereafter. Though Priam son of Dardanus should bid them offer me your weight in gold, even so your mother shall never lay you out and make lament over the son she bore, but dogs and vultures shall eat you utterly up."
Hector with his dying breath then said, "I know you what you are, and was sure that I should not move you, for your heart is hard as iron; look to it that I bring not heaven's anger upon you on the day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo, valiant though you be, shall slay you at the Scaean gates."
When he had thus said the shrouds of death enfolded him, whereon his soul went out of him and flew down to the house of Hades, lamenting its sad fate that it should en' youth and strength no longer. But Achilles said, speaking to the dead body, "Die; for my part I will accept my fate whensoever Jove and the other gods see fit to send it."
Work Cited:
Hector
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/259212/Hector
Paris
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/443614/Paris
Apollo
The Encyclopedia Mythica:
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/a/apollo.html
Achilles
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/3581/Achilles
The Importance of Funeral Rite in Ancient Greece
by Judy Brown, Demand Media
http://people.opposingviews.com/importance-funeral-rites-ancient-greece-5321.html
Hades
The Greek Mythology
http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Hades/hades.html
The Scaean Gate
Boston College
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/ashp/NEWhp252/halli/scaean.html
The Shameless: The Canine and Feminine in Ancient Greece
By Cristiana Franco
Page 208, Google Book