k to their
walls; but as Hector made a last stand before the gates, Apollo, who
loved Troy because he had built the walls, caused a sunbeam to strike on
Patroclus and make him faint, so that Hector easily struck him down and
killed him. Then there was a desperate fight over his body. The Trojans
did get the armour off it, but the Greeks saved the corpse, and had
almost reached the rampart, when the Trojans came thicker and more
furiously on them, and were almost bursting in, when Achilles, hearing
the noise, came out, and, standing on the rampart just as he was, all
unarmed, gave a terrible thundering shout, at which the Trojans were
filled with dismay, and fled back in confusion, while the corpse of
Patroclus was borne into the tent, where Achilles mourned over it, with
many tears and vows of vengeance against Hector.

[Picture: Achilles binding his armour on Patroclus] His mother Thetis
came from the sea and wept with him, and thence she went to Vulcan, from
whom she obtained another beautiful suit of armour, with a wondrous
shield, representing Greek life in every phase of war or peace; and in
this Achilles went forth again to the battle. He drove the Trojans
before his irresistible might, came up with Hector, chased him round and
round the walls of Troy, and at length came up with him and slew him.
Then, when Patroclus had been laid on a costly funeral pile, Achilles
dragged Hector's body at the back of his chariot three times round it.
Further, in honour of his friend, he had games of racing in chariots and
on foot, wrestling, boxing, throwing heavy stones, and splendidly
rewarded those who excelled with metal tripods, weapons, and robes.

But when poor old Priam, grieving that his son's corpse should lie
unburied, thus hindering his shade from being at rest, came forth at
night, in disguise, to beg it from Achilles, the hero received the old
man most kindly, wept at the thought of his own old father Peleus, fed
and warmed him, and sent home the body of Hector most honourably.

Here ends the _Iliad_. It is from other poems that the rest of the
history is taken, and we know that Achilles performed many more great
exploits, until Paris was aided by Apollo to shoot an arrow into the heel
which alone could be wounded, and thus the hero died. There was another
great fight over his body, but Ajax and Ulysses rescued it at last; Ajax
bore it to the ships, and Ulysses kept back the Trojans. Thetis and all
the Nerei