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6 Vouchsafe that this my son may yet become

Among the Trojans eminent like me,

And nobly rule in Ilium. May they say,

'This man is greater than his father was!'

When they behold him from the battlefield

Bring back the bloody spoil of the slain foe,

That so his mother may be glad at heart."

So speaking, to the arms of his dear spouse

He gave the boy; she on her fragrant breast

Received him, weeping as she smiled. The chief

Beheld, and, moved with tender pity, smoothed Her forehead gently with his hand and said:

Sorrow not thus, beloved one, for me.

No living man can send me to the shades

Before my time; no man of woman born,

Coward or brave, can shun his destiny.

But go thou home, and tend thy labors there,—

The web, the distaff,—and command thy maids

To speed the work. The cares of war pertain

To all men born in Troy, and most to me."

Thus speaking, mighty Hector took again

His helmet, shadowed with the horse-hair plume,

While homeward his beloved consort went,

Oft looking back, and shedding many tears.

On the third great day of battle, Patroclus, the comrade and dearest friend of Achilles, is slain by Hector. This leads Achilles, who has been "sulking in his tent," to return to the fray. Our scene opens near the close of the fourth day of battle, on the twenty-seventh day of the action of the Iliad. Hector is pursued by Achilles. The other Trojan warriors have