t hand--for
your own death awaits you full soon after that of Hector."

Then said Achilles in his great grief, "I would die here and now, in
that I could not save my comrade. He has fallen far from home, and in
his hour of need my hand was not there to help him. What is there for
me? Return to my own land I shall not, and I have brought no saving
neither to Patroclus nor to my other comrades of whom so many have been
slain by mighty Hector; I stay here by my ships a bootless burden upon
the earth, I, who in fight have no peer among the Achaeans, though in
council there are better than I. Therefore, perish strife both from
among gods and men, and anger, wherein even a righteous man will harden
his heart--which rises up in the soul of a man like smoke, and the
taste thereof is sweeter than drops of honey. Even so has Agamemnon
angered me. And yet--so be it, for it is over; I will force my soul
into subjection as I needs must; I will go; I will pursue Hector who
has slain him whom I loved so dearly, and will then abide my doom when
it may please Jove and the other gods to send it. Even Hercules, the
best beloved of Jove--even he could not escape the hand of death, but
fate and Juno's fierce anger laid him low, as I too shall lie when I am
dead if a like doom awaits me. Till then I will win fame, and will bid
Trojan and Dardanian women wring tears from their tender cheeks with
both their hands in the grievousness of their great sorrow; thus shall
they know that he who has held aloof so long will hold aloof no longer.
Hold me not back, therefore, in the love you bear me, for you shall not
move me."

Then silver-footed Thetis answered, "My son, what you have said is
true. It is well to save your comrades from destruction, but your
armour is in the hands of the Trojans; Hector bears it in triumph upon
his own shoulders. Full well I know that his vaunt shall not be
lasting, for his end is close at hand; go not, however, into the press
of battle till you see me return hither; to-morrow at break of day I
shall be here, and will bring you goodly armour from King Vulcan."

On this she left her brave son, and as she turned away she said to the
sea-nymphs her sisters, "Dive into the bosom of the sea and go to the
house of the old sea-god my father. Tell him everything; as for me, I
will go to the cunning workman Vulcan on high Olympus, and ask him to
provide my son with a suit of splendid armour."

When she had so said, they dive