hou wilt not come to their aid, let me go into the fight and let
me take with me thy company of Myrmidons. And O Achilles, grant me
another thing. Let me wear thine armour and thy helmet so that the
Trojans will believe for a while that Achilles has come back into the
battle. Then would they flee before me and our warriors would be given a
breathing-time."'

[Illustration]

'Said Achilles, "I have declared that I shall not cease from my wrath
until the Trojans come to my own ships. But thou, Patroklos, dear
friend, may'st go into the battle. All thou hast asked shall be freely
given to thee--my Myrmidons to lead and my armour to wear, and even my
chariot and my immortal horses. Drive the Trojans from the ships. But
when thou hast driven them from the ships, return to this hut. Do not go
near the City. Return, I bid thee, Patroklos, when the Trojans are no
longer around the ships, and leave it to others to battle on the
plain."'

'Then Patroklos put on the armour that Zeus had given to Achilles'
father, Peleus. Round his shoulders he cast the sword of bronze with its
studs of silver, and upon his head he put the helmet with its high
horse-hair crest--the terrible helmet of Achilles. Then Achilles bade
the charioteer yoke the horses to the chariot--the horses, Xanthos and
Balios, that were also gifts from the gods. And while all this was being
done Achilles went amongst the Myrmidons, making them ready for the
battle and bidding them remember all the threats they had uttered
against the Trojans in the time when they had been kept from the fight.'

'Then he went back to his hut and opening the chest that his mother,
Thetis, had given him he took from it a four-handled cup--a cup that no
one drank out of but Achilles himself. Then pouring wine into this cup
and holding it towards Heaven, Achilles prayed to Zeus, the greatest of
the gods:

"My comrade I send to the war, O far-seeing Zeus:

May'st strengthen his heart, O Zeus, that all triumph be his:
But when from the ships he hath driven the spear of our foes,
Out of the turmoil of battle may he to me return
Scathless, with arms and his comrades who fight hand to hand."

'So Achilles prayed, and the Myrmidons beside their ships shouted in
their eagerness to join in the battle.'

XV

Who was the first of the great Trojan Champions to go down before the
onset of Patroklos? The first was Sarpedon who had come with an army to
help Hector from