Then, as the custom was, Achilles held games--chariot races, foot races,
boxing, wrestling, and archery--in honour of Patroclus. Ulysses won the
prize for the foot race, and for the wrestling, so now his wound must
have been healed.

But Achilles still kept trailing Hector's dead body each day round the
hill that had been raised for the tomb of Patroclus, till the Gods in
heaven were angry, and bade Thetis tell her son that he must give back
the dead body to Priam, and take ransom for it, and they sent a messenger
to Priam to bid him redeem the body of his son. It was terrible for
Priam to have to go and humble himself before Achilles, whose hands had
been red with the blood of his sons, but he did not disobey the Gods. He
opened his chests, and took out twenty-four beautiful embroidered changes
of raiment; and he weighed out ten heavy bars, or talents, of gold, and
chose a beautiful golden cup, and he called nine of his sons, Paris, and
Helenus, and Deiphobus, and the rest, saying, "Go, ye bad sons, my shame;
would that Hector lived and all of you were dead!" for sorrow made him
angry; "go, and get ready for me a wain, and lay on it these treasures."
So they harnessed mules to the wain, and placed in it the treasures, and,
after praying, Priam drove through the night to the hut of Achilles. In
he went, when no man looked for him, and kneeled to Achilles, and kissed
his terrible death-dealing hands. "Have pity on me, and fear the Gods,
and give me back my dead son," he said, "and remember thine own father.
Have pity on me, who have endured to do what no man born has ever done
before, to kiss the hands that slew my sons."

Then Achilles remembered his own father, far away, who now was old and
weak: and he wept, and Priam wept with him, and then Achilles raised
Priam from his knees and spoke kindly to him, admiring how beautiful he
still was in his old age, and Priam himself wondered at the beauty of