Priam performs the obsequies for Æsacus, believing him to be dead. The
children of Priam attend, with the exception of Paris, who, having gone
to Greece, carries off Helen, the wife of Menelaüs. The Greeks pursue
Paris, but are detained at Aulis, where they see a serpent changed into
stone, and prepare to sacrifice Iphigenia to Diana; but a hind is
substituted for her. The Trojans hearing of the approach of the Greeks,
in arms await their arrival. At the first onset, Cygnus, dashed by
Achilles against a stone, is changed by Neptune into the swan, a bird of
the same name, he having been vulnerable by no weapon. At the banquet of
the chiefs, Nestor calls to mind Cæneus, who was also invulnerable; and
who having been changed from a woman into a man, on being buried under a
heap of trees, was transformed into a bird. This Cæneus was one of the
Lapithæ, at the battle of whom with the Centaurs, Nestor was present.
Nestor also tells how his brother, Periclymenus, was changed into an
eagle. Meanwhile, Neptune laments the death of Cygnus, and entreats
Apollo to direct the arrow of Paris against the heel of Achilles, which
is done, and that hero is slain.