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| Felice Giani Iris encourages Priam to beg Achilles for the body of Hector ca. 1810-20 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
The messenger of Zeus stood beside Priam and spoke to him
in a small voice, and yet the shivers took hold of his body:
'Take heart, Priam, son of Dardanos, do not be frightened.
I come to you not eyeing you with evil intention
but with the purpose of good toward you. I am a messenger
of Zeus, who far away cares much for you and is pitiful.
The Olympian orders you to ransom Hektor the brilliant,
to bring gifts to Achilleus which may soften his anger:
alone, let no other man of the Trojans go with you, but only
let one elder herald attend you, one who can manage
the mules and the easily running wagon, so he can carry
the dead man, whom great Achilleus slew, back to the city.
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| Attic Greece Black-Figure Hydria Priam driving forth to ransom the body of Hector ca. 520-500 BC painted terracotta Harvard Art Museums |
Now in urgent haste the old man mounted into his chariot
and drove out through the forecourt and the thundering close. Before him
the mules hauled the wagon on its four wheels, Idaios
the sober-minded driving them, and behind him the horses
came on as the old man laid the lash upon them and urged them
rapidly through the town, and all his kinsmen were following
much lamenting, as if he went to death.
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| Giuseppe Girometti after Bertel Thorvaldsen Priam supplicating Achilles for the body of Hector ca. 1815-25 onyx cameo Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Francesco Solimena Priam in the Tent of Achilles ca. 1695 oil on canvas (bozzetto) Compton Verney, Warwickshire |
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| Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Priam and Achilles ca. 1790 jasperware plaque Art Institute of Chicago |
But now Priam spoke to him in the words of a suppliant:
'Achilleus like the gods, remember your father, one who
is of years like mine, and on the door-sill of sorrowful old age.
And they who dwell nearby encompass him and afflict him,
nor is there any to defend him against the wrath, the destruction.
Yet surely he, when he hears of you and that you are still living,
is gladdened within his heart and all his days he is hopeful
that he will see his beloved son come home from the Troad.
But for me, my destiny was evil. I have had the noblest
of sons in Troy, but I say not one of them is left to me.'
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| Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Priam and Achilles ca. 1790 jasperware plaque Art Institute of Chicago |
So he spoke, and stirred in the other a passion of grieving
for his own father. He took the old man's hand and pushed him
gently away, and the two remembered, as Priam sat huddled
at the feet of Achilleus and wept close for manslaughtering Hektor
and Achilleus wept now for his own father, now again
for Patroklos. The sound of their mourning moved in the house. Then
when great Achilleus had taken full satisfaction in sorrow
and the passion for it had gone from his mind and body, thereafter
he rose from his chair, and took the old man by the hand, and set him
on his feet again, in pity for the grey head and the grey beard,
and spoke to him and addressed him in winged words: 'Ah, unlucky,
surely you have had much evil to endure in your spirit.
How could you dare to come alone to the ships of the Achaians
and before my eyes, when I am one who have killed in such numbers
such brave sons of yours? The heart in you is iron. Come, then,
and sit down upon this chair, and you and I will even let
our sorrows lie still in the heart for all our grieving.'
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| Gavin Hamilton Priam pleading with Achilles for the body of Hector ca. 1775 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Giovanni Maria Benzoni Priam ransoming Hector's body before 1873 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Giovanni Maria Benzoni Priam holding the Golden Urn with the remains of Hector before 1873 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Étienne Barthélemy Garnier Priam and his Family mourning the Death of Hector before 1849 watercolor Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Franz Cleyn Sack of Troy - Pyrrhus slaying Priam before 1654 drawing (print study) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Roman Empire Priam at the Altar of Zeus slain by Neoptolemos, with Hecuba lamenting ca. 50 BC - AD 50 marble relief Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Attic Greece Red-Figure Amphora Priam at the Altar of Zeus slain by Neoptolemos, with Hecuba lamenting ca. 500 BC painted terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Francesco Caucig Death of Priam before 1828 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Tommaso Piroli after Vincenzo Camuccini after Antonio Canova Death of Priam 1794-95 hand-colored etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
– quoted passages from the Iliad of Homer, translated by Richmond Lattimore (1951)