Seven youths of princely rank, attended by a long train of bearers,
were despatched to the tent of Achilles, loaded with the costly gifts
of atonement from the King. With them went Briseis, thus returned to
her former lord. When she saw Patroclus on the bed where he lay, she
beat her breast, and, embracing the cold body, burst into a passion of
weeping. "Friend of my sorrow!" she cried, "I left thee living, and I
find thee dead. Woe, and more woe, is all my portion. When I came
hither, an orphaned captive, bereaved of all, thou didst comfort me in
my great affliction, promising, when the war was over, to make me
Achilles' lawful wife. Thy gentleness and thy knightly courtesy shed
balm upon my wounded spirit, and now thou art gone, and my last comfort
is gone with thee."
So mourned Briseis, and all the captive ladies wept afresh when they
heard her, having cause enough for tears, every one. The sound of
their lamentation reached the ears of Achilles where he sat, but he
remained unmoved by the tragedy of these lesser spirits, being absorbed
in the sense of his own great loss. The tide of his passion had ebbed
again, leaving his heart cold and desolate. His men brought him food
and drink, but he repulsed them sternly, and would touch nothing. He
thought of the happy past--when he and Patroclus had partaken together
of many a cheerful meal--and then of the bitter present, when the sight
of bread and meat filled him with loathing. He thought of his father
Peleus, growing old in his solitary home, waiting in sad expectation to
hear of his son's death, and of the young Neoptolemus, his own child,
growing up among strangers in the island of Scyros. "Lost, lost, all
lost!" he murmured; "I shall never see them again."
But the gods had not forgotten their favourite. Zeus beheld him as he
sat thus stricken and forlorn, and sent Athene to inspire him with new
comfort and strength. Unseen, she alighted at his side, and fed him,
though he knew it not, with heavenly food, filling his heart with more
than mortal vigour and courage. Meanwhile the clash of arms rang
through the camp as the Greeks marched out, column after column, to
battle, thick as autumnal leaves, or hovering snowflakes in winter.
The air seemed on fire with the flash of myriads of spears, and the
earth shook beneath the thunder of their tread.
Roused by the sound, Achilles sprang to his feet, and buckled on his
corslet, and clasped the greaves to his ankles. Then he flung the
sword over his shoulder, and thrust his arm through the strap of his
shield, which shone like the full-orbed moon, or a beaconlight blazing
afar over a stormy sea. Last of all, he lifted his mighty helmet, with
its nodding, golden plume, and set it on his head. And now, being
arrayed in his harness from head to foot, he raised himself to his
towering height, and stretched his fleet limbs, to prove the armour;
and it became unto him as wings, making him lighter and nimbler than
ever before.
Grasping in his right hand his spear--the mighty Pelian ash, pointed
with death--he went forth before the tent, where Automedon stood
waiting with his car. "Now hear me, ye children of the wind!" he
cried, addressing his steeds, "see that ye play me not false to-day, as
when ye left Patroclus dead on the field, and came back with an empty
car."
Then there befell a wondrous thing; for the good steed Xanthus,
drooping low his head, answered with a human voice, and spake thus unto
his master: "Yea, we will carry thee safe back, most dread Achilles,
when the fight is o'er. It was by no sloth or tardiness of ours that
thy brave comrade met his death; that deed was wrought by the hand of
Apollo, using Hector as his instrument--even as thou too shalt be cut
off by a human weapon, but by no human power."
So spake the immortal courser, for the first and the last time; for
fate suffered it not again. And Achilles answered him, and said:
"Waste not thy prophecies on me, good steed! I know my fate--death on
the battlefield, far from my home: but ere that hour comes I will send
many a Trojan to herald my coming among the dead."
Then, shouting his dread battle-cry, he sprang into his car, and drove
headlong to the front.