Hector, you go back to the city, tell our mother
to gather all the older noble women together
in gray-eyed Athena’s shrine on the city’s crest,
unlock the doors of the goddess’ sacred chamber –
and take a robe, the largest, loveliest robe
that she can find throughout the royal halls,
a gift that far and away she prizes most herself,
and spread it out across the sleek-haired goddess’ knees.
Then promise to sacrifice twelve heifers in her shrine,
yearlings never broken, if only she’ll pity Troy,
the Trojan wives and all our helpless children,
if only she’ll hold Diomedes back from the holy city.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 6, lines 102-113. Helenus, a son of Priam and also a seers, tells his brother Hector how to save Troy from Diomedes’s onslaught. Hector is urged to go back to the city to organize a Trojan sacrifice of twelve heifers to Athena so that the goddess will pity Troy and hold Diomedes back.