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Zeus sends Iris to Priam:
And Iris ran his message, racing with gale force
to Priam's halls where cries and mourning met her.
Sons huddled round their father deep in the courtyard,
robes drenched with tears, and the old man amidst them,
buried, beaten down in the cloak that wrapped his body...
Smeared on the old man's head and neck the dung lay thick
that he scraped up in his own hands, grovelling in the filth.
Throughout the house his daughters and sons' wives wailed,
remembering all the fine brave men who lay dead now,
their lives destroyed at the fighting Argives' hands.
And Iris, Zeus' crier, standing alongside Priam,
spoke in a soft voice, but his limbs shook at once -
"Courage, Dardan Priam, take heart! Nothing to fear.
No herald of doom, I come on a friendly mission -
I come with all good will.
I bring you a message from Zeus, a world away
but he has you in his heart, he pities you now...
Olympian Zeus commands you to ransom royal Hector,
to bear gifts to Achilles, gifts to melt his rage."
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