of Achilles by the hands, and heaved it upon his back, and so limped
towards the ships, but Aias and the men of Aias followed, turning round
if ever the Trojans ventured to come near, and charging into the midst of
them. Thus very slowly they bore the dead Achilles across the plain,
through the bodies of the fallen and the blood, till they met Nestor in
his chariot and placed Achilles therein, and swiftly Nestor drove to the
ships.

There the women, weeping, washed Achilles' comely body, and laid him on a
bier with a great white mantle over him, and all the women lamented and
sang dirges, and the first was Briseis, who loved Achilles better than
her own country, and her father, and her brothers whom he had slain in
war. The Greek princes, too, stood round the body, weeping and cutting
off their long locks of yellow hair, a token of grief and an offering to
the dead.

Men say that forth from the sea came Thetis of the silver feet, the
mother of Achilles, with her ladies, the deathless maidens of the waters.
They rose up from their glassy chambers below the sea, moving on, many
and beautiful, like the waves on a summer day, and their sweet song
echoed along the shores, and fear came upon the Greeks. Then they would
have fled, but Nestor cried: "Hold, flee not, young lords of the
Achaeans! Lo, she that comes from the sea is his mother, with the
deathless maidens of the waters, to look on the face of her dead son."
Then the sea nymphs stood around the dead Achilles and clothed him in the
garments of the Gods, fragrant raiment, and all the Nine Muses, one to
the other replying with sweet voices, began their lament.

Next the Greeks made a great pile of dry wood, and laid Achilles on it,
and set fire to it, till the flames had consumed his body except the
white ashes. These they placed in a great golden cup and mingled with
them the ashes of Patroclus, and above all they built a tomb like a hill,
high on a headland above the sea, that men for all time may see it as
they go sailing by, and may remember Achilles. Next they held in his
honour foot races and chariot races, and other games, and Thetis gave
splendid prizes. Last of all, when the games were ended, Thetis placed
before the chiefs the glorious armour that the God had made for her son
on the night after the slaying of Patroclus by Hector. "Let these arms
be the prize of the best of the Greeks," she said, "and of him that saved
the body of Achilles out of the