's darling son, and lovely as a
star. Hector had named him Scamandrius, but the people called him
Astyanax, for his father stood alone as chief guardian of Ilius. Hector
smiled as he looked upon the boy, but he did not speak, and Andromache
stood by him weeping and taking his hand in her own. "Dear husband,"
said she, "your valour will bring you to destruction; think on your
infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your
widow--for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you. It
would be better for me, should I lose you, to lie dead and buried, for
I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone, save only
sorrow. I have neither father nor mother now. Achilles slew my father
when he sacked Thebe the goodly city of the Cilicians. He slew him, but
did not for very shame despoil him; when he had burned him in his
wondrous armour, he raised a barrow over his ashes and the mountain
nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Jove, planted a grove of elms about
his tomb. I had seven brothers in my father's house, but on the same
day they all went within the house of Hades. Achilles killed them as
they were with their sheep and cattle. My mother--her who had been
queen of all the land under Mt. Placus--he brought hither with the
spoil, and freed her for a great sum, but the archer-queen Diana took
her in the house of your father. Nay--Hector--you who to me are father,
mother, brother, and dear husband--have mercy upon me; stay here upon
this wall; make not your child fatherless, and your wife a widow; as
for the host, place them near the fig-tree, where the city can be best
scaled, and the wall is weakest. Thrice have the bravest of them come
thither and assailed it, under the two Ajaxes, Idomeneus, the sons of
Atreus, and the brave son of Tydeus, either of their own bidding, or
because some soothsayer had told them."

And Hector answered, "Wife, I too have thought upon all this, but with
what face should I look upon the Trojans, men or women, if I shirked
battle like a coward? I cannot do so: I know nothing save to fight
bravely in the forefront of the Trojan host and win renown alike for my
father and myself. Well do I know that the day will surely come when
mighty Ilius shall be destroyed with Priam and Priam's people, but I
grieve for none of these--not even for Hecuba, nor King Priam, nor for
my brothers many and brave who may fall in the dust before their
foes--for none of these do I grieve as f