Page 418 - the-iliad

having been sold over into Lemnos, I shall have the Trojans
also whom I have slain rising from the world below. Could
not even the waters of the grey sea imprison him, as they
do many another whether he will or no? This time let him
taste my spear, that I may know for certain whether mother
earth who can keep even a strong man down, will be able to
hold him, or whether thence too he will return.’
Thus did he pause and ponder. But Lycaon came up to
him dazed and trying hard to embrace his knees, for he
would fain live, not die. Achilles thrust at him with his
spear, meaning to kill him, but Lycaon ran crouching up
to him and caught his knees, whereby the spear passed over
his back, and stuck in the ground, hungering though it was
for blood. With one hand he caught Achilles’ knees as he
besought him, and with the other he clutched the spear
and would not let it go. Then he said, ‘Achilles, have mer-
cy upon me and spare me, for I am your suppliant. It was
in your tents that I first broke bread on the day when you
took me prisoner in the vineyard; after which you sold me
away to Lemnos far from my father and my friends, and I
brought you the price of a hundred oxen. I have paid three
times as much to gain my freedom; it is but twelve days that
I have come to Ilius after much suffering, and now cruel fate
has again thrown me into your hands. Surely father Jove
must hate me, that he has given me over to you a second
time. Short of life indeed did my mother Laothoe bear me,
daughter of aged Altes—of Altes who reigns over the war-
like Lelegae and holds steep Pedasus on the river Satnioeis.
Priam married his daughter along with many other women

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