Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

At the Achaean works Hermes does what no mortal herald could: he casts sleep upon the gate-wards, thrusts back the bars, and opens the gates, bringing the wagon through to Achilles’ shelter among the Myrmidons. There he reveals himself—he is Hermes, not a Myrmidon youth—and warns Priam not to sit idle but to clasp Achilles’ knees at once; then the god departs, unwilling to be seen openly by a mortal favorite of Zeus’s anger in that tent. After the ransom, meal, and couch in the porch, Hermes returns before dawn, wakes Priam, and urges flight before Agamemnon learns a Trojan king is in the camp. He again yokes the team, drives them out past the sleeping host, and leaves them at the ford of the Xanthus as day breaks; from there Priam and Idaeus continue toward Troy, where Cassandra will first see the returning wagon. The escort thus brackets the human climax: divine opening of the hostile camp, withdrawal during the father–son weeping, and divine extraction before the political danger of discovery.