g still; but near him came Lycaon, in
consternation, anxious to touch his knees; for he very much wished in
his mind to escape evil death and black fate. Meanwhile noble Achilles
raised his long spear, desiring to wound him; but he ran in under it,
and, stooping, seized his knees, but the spear stuck fixed in the earth
over his back, eager to be satiated with human flesh. But he, having
grasped his knees with one hand, supplicated him, and with the other
held the sharp spear, nor did he let it go; and, supplicating, addressed
to him winged words:

"O Achilles, embracing thy knees, I supplicate thee; but do thou respect
and pity me. I am to thee in place of a suppliant, to be revered, O
Jove-nurtured one! For with thee I first tasted the fruit of Ceres on
that day when thou tookest me in the well-cultivated field, and didst
sell[671] me, leading me away from my father and friends, to sacred
Lemnos; and I brought thee the price of a hundred oxen. But now will I
redeem myself, giving thrice as many. This is already the twelfth
morning to me since I came to Troy, having suffered much, and now again
pernicious fate has placed me in thy hands. Certainly I must be hated by
father Jove, who has again given me to thee. For my mother Laothoe, the
daughter of aged Altes, brought forth short-lived me, of Altes, who
rules over the warlike Lelegans, possessing lofty Padasus, near the
Satnio: and Priam possessed his daughter, as well as many others; but
from her we two were born, but thou wilt slay both. Him, godlike
Polydorus, thou hast subdued already among the foremost infantry, when
thou smotest him with the sharp spear, and now will evil be to me here;
for I do not think that I shall escape thy hands, since a deity has
brought me near thee. Yet another thing will I tell thee, and do thou
store it in thy mind. Do not slay me, for I am not of the same womb with
Hector, who killed thy companion, both gentle and brave." Thus then,
indeed, the noble son of Priam addressed him, supplicating with words;
but he heard a stern reply.

[Footnote 671: Hesych. [Greek: erasas eisto peras tes thalasses
diaperasas epolysas]. See Schol. on ver. 40.]

"Fool, talk not to me of ransom, nor, indeed, mention it. Before
Patroclus fulfilled the fatal day, so long to me was it more agreeable
in my mind to spare the Trojans, and many I took alive and sold. But now
there is not [one] of all the Trojans, whom the deity shall put into my
hands befor