Priam

King through Troy’s golden age and its destruction, Priam loses son after son to the war and, in the Iliad’s final movement, does what no man had done: crosses the plain by night, guided by Hermes, to kiss the hands of Achilles and beg back Hector’s body. The scene of the two enemies weeping together is the summit of the poem. His own death at the altar, cut down by Achilles’ son, belongs to the city’s last night in Virgil.