Iliad

Then, as the life ebbed out of you, you answered, O horseman Patroklos: "Hektor, vaunt as you will, for Zeus the son of Kronos and Apollo have granted you victory; it is they who have vanquished me so easily, and they who have stripped the armor 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 Euphorbos; 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 Aiakos." When he had thus spoken his eyes were closed in the doom [ telos ] of death, his life-breath [ psukhê ] 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, Hektor still spoke to him saying, "Patroklos, 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?"

IliadBook 16, Line 843Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 16

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