Three times they circled the city of Priam, and all the gods looked on. Zeus spoke in pity, saying his eyes saw a man dear to him pursued around Troy — Hector who had burned many thigh-bones in his honor on Ida and in the high city.
He asked whether they should save Hector from death or let Achilles cut him down. Athena answered that a mortal whose doom was long decreed should not be snatched from death. Do as he would, but the others would not praise it.
Zeus told his child to take heart; he had not spoken in full earnest, and she might have her way. Athena darted down from the peaks of Olympus, already eager.
Achilles still hunted Hector as a hound hunts a fawn through glade and thicket. Whenever Hector tried to dash for the gates under the wall, Achilles cut him off toward the plain. Apollo still gave Hector strength for a little longer and kept his knees light.
Achilles signaled the Achaeans by a shake of his head not to shoot Hector, lest some lesser man take the glory. When they came around the fourth time to the springs, Father Zeus lifted his golden scales and set in them two fates of long-sorrowing death, one for Achilles and one for horse-taming Hector.
Hector's day of doom sank. Apollo left him. Athena came to Achilles and told him the time had come: they would take glory for the Achaeans. She would persuade Hector to stand and fight.