Achilles, the central figure of the poem, over whose grave Alexander wept jealous tears, was the impersonation of youthful beauty and physical prowess. Brave, generous, passionate, devoted in his friendship but awful in his implacable anger, in him we are brought face to face with the ideal of Greek chivalry. Hector, the magnanimous Trojan hero, was the type of moral courage and domestic virtue. He appears as the affectionate husband, the loving father, kind even to fallen Helen. Homer has painted with exquisite touch a parting scene between Hector and his consort Androm’ache, possessed of every wifely virtue. This passage, herewith presented, is pronounced the most beautiful in the Iliad. PARTING OF HECTOR AND ANDROMACHE. “Hector left in haste The mansion, and retraced his way between The rows of stately dwellings, traversing The mighty city. When at length he reached The Scæan gates, that issue on the field, His spouse, the nobly dowered Andromache, Came forth to meet him—daughter of the prince Eëtion, who, among the woody slopes Of Placos, in the Hypoplacian town Of Thebè,[23] ruled Cilicia and her sons, And gave his child to Hector great in arms. She came attended by a maid, who bore A tender child—a babe too young to speak— Upon her bosom; Hector’s only son, Beautiful as a star, whom Hector called Scamandrius, but all else Astyanax,— The city’s lord,—since Hector stood the sole Defence of Troy. The father on his child Looked with a silent smile. Andromache Pressed to his side meanwhile, and all in tears Clung to his hand, and, thus beginning, said:—