Painterly open hand reaching toward a wilted flower and fallen petals on cracked pavement.

Original artwork, not a still

The Iliad

Homer

I have gone through what no other mortal on earth has gone through; I put my lips to the hands of the man who has killed my children.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker claims to have endured an agony unmatched by any other person alive. The humiliation is total: they have brought their mouth to the hands of the very man who killed their children. Grief and degradation are fused in a single act of submission.

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