to me; quickly then would the dogs and
vultures devour him lying low; surely sad grief would then depart from
my heart. He who has made me deprived of many and brave sons, slaying,
and selling them into far-distant islands. For even now the Trojans
being shut up in the city, I cannot see my two sons, Lycaon and
Polydorus, whom Laothoe bore to me, queen among women. But if indeed
they live at the camp, surely we will afterwards redeem them with brass
and with gold; for it is within; for aged Altes, renowned by fame, gave
many things to his daughter. But if they are already dead, and in the
mansions of Hades, grief will be to my soul, and to their mother, we who
gave them birth. But to the other people the grief will be shorter, if
thou shouldst not die, subdued by Achilles. But come inside the wall, O
my son, that thou mayest save the Trojan men and women, nor afford great
glory to the son of Peleus, and thou thyself be deprived of thy dear
life. Moreover, pity me, wretched, yet still preserving my senses,[697]
unhappy, whom the Saturnian sire will destroy by grievous fate, upon the
threshold of old age, having seen many evils,[698] my sons slain, my
daughters dragged captives, their chambers plundered, and my infant
children dashed upon the earth in dire hostility, and my
daughters-in-law torn away by the pernicious hands of the Greeks. And
myself perhaps the last--the raw-devouring dogs, whom I have nourished
in my palaces, the attendants of my table, the guards of my portals,
will tear at the entrance of the gates,[699] after some one, having
stricken or wounded me with the sharp brass, shall take away my soul
from my limbs; and who, drinking my blood, will lie in the porch,
infuriated in mind. To a young man, indeed, slain in battle, lacerated
with the sharp brass, it is altogether becoming to lie, for all things
are honourable to him dead, whatever may appear; but when dogs dishonour
the grey head, the hoary beard, and privy members of an old man slain,
that is indeed most pitiable among wretched mortals."

[Footnote 697: _I.e._ alive. Cf. xxiii.]

[Footnote 698: On the proverbial woes of Priam, cf. Aristotle
Eth. i. 9, 10; and Ennius, fragm. Andromach. p. 236--9, with the
notes of Columna, ed. Hessel.]

[Footnote 699: Cf. Virg. AEn. ii. 550, sqq., who has imitated this
passage in his description of the death of Priam.]

The old man spoke, and tore out the hoary locks with his hands, plucking