Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
Then, as the life ebbed out of you, you answered, O knight
Patroclus: “Hector, vaunt as you will, for Jove the son of Saturn and
Apollo have vouchsafed you victory; it is they who have
vanquished me so easily, and they who have stripped the armour
from my shoulders; had twenty such men as you attacked me, all
of them would have fallen before my spear. Fate and the son of
Leto have overpowered me, and among mortal men Euphorbus;
you are yourself third only in the killing of me. I say further, and
lay my saying to your heart, you too shall live but for a little
season; death and the day of your doom are close upon you, and
they will lay you low by the hand of Achilles son of Aeacus.”
When he had thus spoken his eyes were closed in death, his soul
left his body and flitted down to the house of Hades, mourning its
sad fate and bidding farewell to the youth and vigor of its
manhood. Dead though he was, Hector still spoke to him saying,
“Patroclus, why should you thus foretell my doom? Who knows
but Achilles, son of lovely Thetis, may be smitten by my spear and
die before me?”
As he spoke he drew the bronze spear from the wound, planting
his foot upon the body, which he thrust off and let lie on its back.
He then went spear in hand after Automedon, squire of the fleet
descendant of Aeacus, for he longed to lay him low, but the
immortal steeds which the gods had given as a rich gift to Peleus
bore him swiftly from the field.
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