proposed, either a tripod, or a woman [in honor] of a deceased hero; so they thrice made the circuit of the city of Priam with their swift feet: and all the gods beheld. Then to them the father of men and gods commenced an address:
"Alas! certainly I behold with mine eyes a beloved hero pursued round the wall; and my heart is grieved on account of Hector, who has sacrificed many thighs of oxen to me, upon the tops of many-valed Ida, and at other times again in the highest [places of] the city; but now, indeed, noble Achilles pursues him, on swift feet, around the city of Priam. But come, deliberate, O ye gods, and consider, whether we shall preserve him from death, or shall subdue him now, being brave [at the hands of] Achilles, the son of Peleus."
But him the blue-eyed goddess Minerva then addressed:
"O father, hurler of the white thunder, [collector] of dark clouds, what a word hast thou spoken! Dost thou wish to liberate from sad death a man, being mortal, long ago destined to fate? Do it; but all we, the other gods, will not assent to thee."
Her, then, the cloud-compelling Jupiter, answering, addressed: "Take courage, Tritonia, beloved child: I by no means speak with serious mind, but I wish to be mild to thee. Do as is the inclination, nor delay at all."
Thus speaking, he incited Minerva, already prepared; and, springing forth, she descended down from the heights of Olympus.
But swift Achilles pursued Hector, incessantly pressing upon him. And as when a dog pursues the fawn of a deer in the mountains, having roused it from its lair, through both glens and thickets; adn, although panic-stricken, it crouches down beneath a brake; yet tracking it, he runs continually on until he finds it; so Hector eluded not the swift-footed son of Peleus. As often as he would rush against the Dardanian gates, toward under the well-built towers, if perchance they might aid him with missile weapons from above, so often, previously anticipating him, he turned him away toward the plain; while he himself always flew on the side of the city. And as in a dream one can not pursue a fugitive; neither can the one escape the other, nor the other pursue; so the one could not overtake the other in his speed, nor the other escape him. But how, then, could Hector have escaped
