Samuel Butler

The death of Hector.

Achilles son of Peleus

"we must judge men not so much by what they do, as by what they make us feel that they have it in them to do. If a man has done enough either in painting, music or the affairs of life, to make me feel that I might trust him in an emergency he has done enough

the shades of death, with fate that no man can withstand

Would that the earth might open her jaws and swallow him

Could I but see him go down into the house of Hades, my heart would forget its heaviness.

would that a whirlwind had caught me up on the day my mother brought me forth, and had borne me to some mountain or to the waves of the roaring sea that should have swept me away

but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there is no escape for him when he has once been born

for aught I care, you may go to the lowest depths beneath earth and sea, where Iapetus and Saturn dwell in lone Tartarus with neither ray of light nor breath of wind to cheer them. You may go on and on till you get there, and I shall not care one whit for your displeasure; you are the greatest vixen living."

He was alone with Patroclus, who sat opposite to him and said nothing, waiting till he should cease singing.