s wedded wife. Opposite these, on the other side the courtyard,
there were twelve upper rooms also of hewn stone for Priam's daughters,
built near one another, where his sons-in-law slept with their wives.
When Hector got there, his fond mother came up to him with Laodice the
fairest of her daughters. She took his hand within her own and said,
"My son, why have you left the battle to come hither? Are the Achaeans,
woe betide them, pressing you hard about the city that you have thought
fit to come and uplift your hands to Jove from the citadel? Wait till I
can bring you wine that you may make offering to Jove and to the other
immortals, and may then drink and be refreshed. Wine gives a man fresh
strength when he is wearied, as you now are with fighting on behalf of
your kinsmen."

And Hector answered, "Honoured mother, bring no wine, lest you unman me
and I forget my strength. I dare not make a drink-offering to Jove with
unwashed hands; one who is bespattered with blood and filth may not
pray to the son of Saturn. Get the matrons together, and go with
offerings to the temple of Minerva driver of the spoil; there, upon the
knees of Minerva, lay the largest and fairest robe you have in your
house--the one you set most store by; promise, moreover, to sacrifice
twelve yearling heifers that have never yet felt the goad, in the
temple of the goddess if she will take pity on the town, with the wives
and little ones of the Trojans, and keep the son of Tydeus from off the
goodly city of Ilius, for he fights with fury, and fills men's souls
with panic. Go, then, to the temple of Minerva, while I seek Paris and
exhort him, if he will hear my words. Would that the earth might open
her jaws and swallow him, for Jove bred him to be the bane of the
Trojans, and of Priam and Priam's sons. Could I but see him go down
into the house of Hades, my heart would forget its heaviness."

His mother went into the house and called her waiting-women who
gathered the matrons throughout the city. She then went down into her
fragrant store-room, where her embroidered robes were kept, the work of
Sidonian women, whom Alexandrus had brought over from Sidon when he
sailed the seas upon that voyage during which he carried off Helen.
Hecuba took out the largest robe, and the one that was most beautifully
enriched with embroidery, as an offering to Minerva: it glittered like
a star, and lay at the very bottom of the chest. With this she went on
her way an