With one hand he caught Achilles' knees as he besought him, and with the other he clutched the spear and would not let it go.

Then he said, "Achilles, have mercy upon me and spare me, for I am your suppliant.

It was in your tents that I first broke bread on the day when you took me prisoner in the vineyard; after which you sold me away to Lemnos far from my father and my friends, and I brought you the price of a hundred oxen.

I have paid three times as much to gain my freedom; it is but twelve days that I have come to Ilius after much suffering, and now cruel fate has again thrown me into your hands.
Surely father Jove must hate me, that he has given me over to you a second time.

Short of life indeed did my mother Laothoe bear me, daughter of aged Altes--of Altes who reigns over the warlike Lelegae and holds steep Pedasus on the river Satnioeis.