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449—484. her to the ground; and immediately she addressed her fair-haired attendants:

"Come hither, let two follow me, that I may see what deeds have been done. I heard the voice of my venerable mother-in-law, and to myself the heart within my breast leaps up to my mouth, and the limbs under me are benumbed. Surely some evil is now near the sons of Priam. O that the word may be [far] from my ear! I dread lest brave Achilles, having already cut off noble Hector alone from the city, may drive him toward the plain, and even now have made him desist from the fatal valor which possessed him; for he never remained among the throng of warriors, but leaped out far before, yielding in his valor to none."

Thus having spoken, she rushed through the palace like unto one deranged, greatly palpitating in heart; and her attendants went along with her. But when she reached the tower and the crowd of men, she stood looking round over the wall, and beheld him dragged before the city; but the fleet steeds drew him ruthlessly toward the ships of the Greeks. Then gloomy night vailed her over her eyes, and she fell backward, and breathed out her soul in a swoon. But from her head fell the beautiful head-gear, the garland, the net, and the twisted fillet, and the vail which golden Venus had given to her on that day when crest-tossing Hector led her from the palace of Eëtion, after he had presented many marriage gifts. Around her in great numbers stood her sisters-in-law and sisters, who supported her among them, seized with stupor unto death. But when she again revived, and her soul was collected in her breast, sobbing at intervals, she spoke among the Trojan dames:

"Hector, O wretched me! then we were both born to a like fate, thou indeed in Troy, in the mansion of Priam, but I in Thebe, beneath woody Placus, in the palace of Eëtion; who, himself ill-fated, reared me, ill-fated, being yet a little child;—would that he had not begotten me! Now, however, thou goest to the mansions of Hades beneath the recesses of the earth, but leavest me, in hateful grief, a widow in the dwelling; and thy boy, yet such an infant, to whom thou