Achilles rushed with his spear at noble Polydorus
son of Priam. His father would not let him fight,
ever, he was the youngest-born of all his sons –
Priam loved him most, the fastest runner of all
but now the young fool, mad to display his speed,
went dashing along the front to meet his death.
Just as he shot past the matchless runner Achilles
speared him square in the back where his war-belt clasped,
golden buckles clinching both halves of his breastplate –
straight on through went the point and out the navel.
down on his knees he dropped –
screaming shrill as tile world went black before him –
clutched his bowels to his body, hunched and sank.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 20, lines 463-475. This is an account of Polydorus dying by the spear of Achilles. Homer humanizes his victims of war, telling us the name, family background and person details of the dead and dying. We learn that Polydorus is the youngest son of Priam. The king loved him most and would not let him fight, but mad to display his speed he foolishly went dashed up to the front to meet his death. We are also given an intimate account of Polydorus’s pain and fear as he dies. Behind each death statistic in this war there is a real human being with family and feelings.