The old man feared and obeyed. Achilles sprang out with Automedon and Alkimos. They unyoked the animals, brought in the herald, and took the ransom, leaving two cloaks and a tunic to wrap the body. Achilles told the women to wash and anoint Hector apart, lest Priam see his son and, in grief, stir Achilles to kill him against Zeus's word.
When the women had washed and wrapped him, Achilles lifted Hector onto a bier, and his comrades set it on the polished wagon. He groaned and called on Patroclus: do not be angry, even in Hades, that I have given Hector back to his father. The ransom is not unworthy, and I will share it duly with you.
Back inside Achilles told Priam his son was given back and lay on a bier; at dawn he could carry him away. Now think of supper. Even Niobe ate after Apollo and Artemis killed her twelve children for likening herself to Leto. Afterward you may weep for your son in Ilios; he will be much wept for.
They killed a white sheep, roasted the meat, and put their hands to the food. When they had eaten, each gazed at the other in wonder — Priam at Achilles' godlike stature, Achilles at Dardanian Priam's fine face and words. Then Priam asked for a bed; his eyes had not closed since Hector died, and he had wallowed in the muck of his courtyard until now he tasted bread and wine again.
Achilles had beds set in the gatehouse for Priam and Idaios, and warned the old man to sleep outside — if an Achaean counselor saw him by night and told Agamemnon, the giving-back might be delayed. How many days did he need to bury horse-taming Hector, so Achilles might hold back the army?
Priam asked for nine days to mourn in the halls, burial and feast on the tenth, a mound on the eleventh, and battle again on the twelfth if fight they must. Achilles said all would be as asked, and took the old man's right wrist so he should have no fear. So they slept — Priam and his herald in the forecourt, Achilles in an inner room with fair-cheeked Briseis beside him.