secured,
  Save where the circling key-bone from the neck
  Disjoins the shoulder; there his throat appear’d,
  Whence injured life with swiftest flight escapes; 375
  Achilles, plunging in that part his spear,
  Impell’d it through the yielding flesh beyond. 
  The ashen beam his power of utterance left
  Still unimpair’d, but in the dust he fell,
  And the exulting conqueror exclaim’d. 380
    But Hector! thou hadst once far other hopes,
  And, stripping slain Patroclus, thought’st thee safe,
  Nor caredst for absent me.  Fond dream and vain! 
  I was not distant far; in yonder fleet
  He left one able to avenge his death, 385
  And he hath slain thee.  Thee the dogs shall rend
  Dishonorably, and the fowls of air,
  But all Achaia’s host shall him entomb. 
    To whom the Trojan Chief languid replied. 
  By thy own life, by theirs who gave thee birth, 390
  And by thy knees,[13] oh let not Grecian dogs
  Rend and devour me, but in gold accept
  And brass a ransom at my father’s hands,
  And at my mother’s an illustrious price;
  Send home my body, grant me burial rites 395
  Among the daughters and the sons of Troy. 
    To whom with aspect stern Achilles thus. 
  Dog! neither knees nor parents name to me. 
  I would my fierceness of revenge were such,
  That I could carve and eat thee, to whose arms 400
  Such griefs I owe; so true it is and sure,
  That none shall save thy carcase from the dogs. 
  No, trust me, would thy parents bring me weigh’d
  Ten—­twenty ransoms, and engage on oath
  To add still more; would thy Dardanian Sire 405
  Priam, redeem thee with thy weight in gold,
  Not even at that price would I consent
  That she who bare should place thee on thy bier
  With lamentation; dogs and ravening fowls
  Shall rend thy body while a scrap remains. 410
    Then, dying, warlike Hector thus replied. 
  Full well I knew before, how suit of mine
  Should speed preferr’d to thee.  Thy heart is steel. 
  But oh, while yet thou livest, think, lest the Gods
  Requite thee on that day, when pierced thyself 415
  By Paris and Apollo, thou shalt fall,
  Brave as thou art, before the Scaean gate. 
    He ceased, and death involved him dark around. 
  His spirit, from his limbs dismiss’d, the house
  Of Ades sought, mourning in her descent 420
  Youth’s prime and vigor lost, disastrous doom! 
  But him though dead, Achilles thus bespake. 
    Die thou.  My death shall find me at what hour
  Jove gives commandment, and the Gods above. 
    He spake, and from the dead drawing away 425
  His brazen spear, placed it apart, then