ὣς ἄρα μιν Πριάμοιο προσηύδα φαίδιμος υἱὸς
λισσόμενος ἐπέεσσιν: ἀμείλικτον δ' ὄπ' ἄκουσε:
νήπιε. μή μοι ἄποινα πιφαύσκεο. μηδ' ἀγόρευε:
πρὶν μὲν γὰρ Πάτροκλον ἐπισπεῖν αἴσιμον ῆμαρ:
τόφρα τί μοι πεφιδέσθαι ἐνι φρεσὶ φίλτερον ῆεν
Τρώων: καὶ πολλοὺς ζωοὺς ἕλον. ἠδ' ἐπέρασσα:
νῦν δ' οὐκ έσθ' ὅς τις θάνατον φύγοι. ὅν κε θεός γε
Ἰ̈λίου προπάροιθεν ἐμῇς ἐν χερσὶ βάλῃσι:
καὶ πάντων Τρώων. περι δ' αὖ Πριάμοιό γε παίδων:
ἀλλὰ φίλος θάνε καὶ σὺ. τί ὴ ὀλοφύρεαι οὕτως:
κάτθανε καὶ Πάτροκλος. ὅ περ σέο πολλὸν ἀμείνων:
οὐχ ὁράαςὁράᾳς οἷος καὶ ἐγὼ καλός τε. μέγας τε.
πατρὸς δ' εἴμ' ἀγαθοῖο: θεὰ δέ με γείνατο μήτηρ:
ἀλλ' ἐπί τοι καὶ ἐμοὶ θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή:
ἔσσεται ἢ ἠὼς. ἢ δείλης. ἢ μέσον ἦμαρ.
ὁππότε τις καὶ ἐμεῖο, Ἄρῃ ἐκ θυμὸν ἕληται.
ἢ ὅ γε δουρὶ βαλὼν. ἢ ἀπὸ νευρῆφιν ὀϊστῷ:
So spake to him the glorious son of Priam with words of entreaty, but all ungentle was the voice he heard: "Fool, tender not ransom to me, neither make harangue. Until Patroclus met his day of fate, even till then was it more pleasing to me to spare the Trojans, and full many I took alive and sold oversea; but now is there not one that shall escape death, whomsoever before the walls of Ilios God shall deliver into my hands—aye, not one among all the Trojans, and least of all among the sons of Priam. Nay, friend, do thou too die; why lamentest thou thus? Patroclus also died, who was better far than thou. And seest thou not what manner of man am I, how comely and how tall? A good man was my father, and a goddess the mother that bare me; yet over me too hang death and mighty fate. There shall come a dawn or eve or mid-day, when my life too shall some man take in battle, whether he smite me with cast of the spear, or with an arrow from the string."
