The Iliad

BOOK VI

BOOK VI: HOW PARIES WAS BROUGHT BACK INTO BATTLE, AND HOW HECTOR PARTED FROM ANDROMACHÊ

The fight was left to the Trojans and the Achaians. Aias was first to bring hope to his side when he struck down Acamas and broke into his battalion. Trojan after Trojan fell under the hands of the Achaian captains and their men.

Hector's brother Helenos called on Hector and Aineias to keep their men from retreating. He bade Hector to go into the city to tell their mother to offer sacrifices to Athena.

Hector went to Priam's palace and told Queen Hecabê to gather the older women to Athena's temple. He bade her to lay her finest robe upon the knees of the goddess and promise to sacrifice twelve yearling heifers if she will take pity on the wives and children of Troy and hold off the wild Diomedês from the city.

Then Hector searched for Alexandros, and found him in his wife's room. "You should not be sulking here," he cried out to him. "Men are falling outside our walls for your sake! You would be the first to attack anyone who shirks his duty! Up, man, or soon this place will be in flames!"

Paris answered, "It is not a bad temper that keeps me here, but a bitter heart. My wife has been trying to persuade me with gentle words to return to battle. I myself think it will be better. I will put on my armor. Go on, and I will catch up with you."

Hector did not answer, and Helen said to him, "Brother, I am ashamed. I wish I had died before all this was done. But since the gods have ordained it, I wish I had been mated with a better man."

She bade Hector to sit down, but he refused.

"I must not stay. Just make this man catch me up before I go out of the gates. First I must find my wife and my little boy, for I don't know if a shall ever see them again."

When Hector reached the Scaian gates, his wife Andromachê came running to meet him, and the nurse followed with their little boy in her arms. Andromachê, weeping, begged him to stay safe behind the walls, but Hector replied:

"I could not show my face to the people of Troy if I sulk like a coward out of the way. My dearest, do not grieve too much. No man may kill me unless it is my destiny."

Paris caught up with Hector just as he was leaving. "Well, you see what a drag I am to you when you are in a hurry! I am late!" he said.

"No fair-minded man could look down on your efforts in battle, for you fight well," Hector answered. "But what I regret is that people speak ill of you because all their hardship is for your sake. But let us go and satisfy them, when we have driven the enemy away from Troy."