Heavy spoilers
Summary
Read more
Achilles cannot sleep for grief. The gods decide that Hector’s body must be returned. Zeus sends Thetis to tell Achilles to accept a ransom, and Iris tells Priam to go to the Achaean camp.
Hermes guides Priam through the camp. The old king enters Achilles’ hut, clasps his knees, and kisses the hand of the man who killed his son. Achilles is moved by the thought of his own father, and they weep together. He returns Hector’s body and grants eleven days for the funeral. The poem ends with the lamentation of Troy.
Opening lines
Then was the gathering broken up, and the folk scattered, each man to go to his own ship. The rest bethought them of supper and of sweet sleep, to take their fill thereof; but Achilles wept, ever remembering his dear comrade, neither might sleep, [5] that mastereth all, lay hold of him, but he turned him ever to this side or to that, yearning for the manhood and valorous might of Patroclus, thinking on all he had… — Homer, Iliad XXIV.1ff., trans. A. T. Murray (Loeb; Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0).
Relations
Backlinks 1
The following entries mention “Iliad XXIV · The Ransom of Hector”.