The household sat apart; and two alone, The hero Automedon, and Alcimus, A branch of Mars, stood by him. They had been And kneeling down, he grasped Achilles' knees, For having slain another, flies away To foreign lands, and comes into the house So did Achilles wonder, to see Priam; And the rest wondered, looking at each other. But Priam, praying to him, spoke these words : "God-like Achilles, think of thine own father, Who is, as I am, at the weary door Of age and though the neighbouring chiefs may : vex him, And he has none to keep his evils off, Yet, when he hears that thou art still alive, Brave sons in Troy, and now I cannot say That one is left me. Fifty children had I, When the Greeks came; nineteen were of one womb; The rest my women bore me in my house. The knees of many of these fierce Mars has loos ened; And he who had no peer, Troy's prop and theirs, Him hast thou killed now, fighting for his country, Hector; and for his sake am I come here To ransom him, bringing a countless ransom. But thou, Achilles, fear the gods, and think He spoke; and there arose Sharp longing in Achilles for his father; And the whole house might hear them as they moaned. But when divine Achilles had refreshed His soul with tears, and sharp desire had left His heart and limbs, he got up from his throne, And raised the old man by the hand, and took Pity on his grey head and his grey chin. MERCURY GOING TO THE CAVE OF CALYPSO. Ως εφατ' ουδ' απίθησε διακτορος Αργειφόντης Αμβροσία, χρυσεια· ODYSS. Lib. 5, v. 43. He said; and straight the herald Argicide |