sary, for Achilles, full of compassion for his
brave but unfortunate adversary, lifted her gently from the ground, and she
expired in his arms.

On beholding the dead body of their leader in the {297} possession of
Achilles, the Amazons and Trojans prepared for a fresh attack in order to
wrest it from his hands; but observing their purpose, Achilles stepped
forward and loudly called upon them to halt. Then in a few well-chosen
words he praised the great valour and intrepidity of the fallen queen, and
expressed his willingness to resign the body at once.

The chivalrous conduct of Achilles was fully appreciated by both Greeks and
Trojans. Thersites alone, a base and cowardly wretch, attributed unworthy
motives to the gracious proceedings of the hero; and, not content with
these insinuations, he savagely pierced with his lance the dead body of the
Amazonian queen; whereupon Achilles, with one blow of his powerful arm,
felled him to the ground, and killed him on the spot.

The well-merited death of Thersites excited no commiseration, but his
kinsman Diomedes came forward and claimed compensation for the murder of
his relative; and as Agamemnon, who, as commander-in-chief, might easily
have settled the difficulty, refrained from interfering, the proud nature
of Achilles resented the implied condemnation of his conduct, and he once
more abandoned the Greek army and took ship for Lesbos. Odysseus, however,
followed him to the island, and, with his usual tact, succeeded in inducing
the hero to return to the camp.

DEATH OF ACHILLES.--A new ally of the Trojans now appeared on the field in
the person of Memnon, the AEthiopian, a son of Eos and Tithonus, who brought
with him a powerful reinforcement of negroes. Memnon was the first opponent
who had yet encountered Achilles on an equal footing; for like the great
hero himself he was the son of a goddess, and possessed also, like
Achilles, a suit of armour made for him by Hephaestus.

Before the heroes encountered each other in single combat, the two
goddesses, Thetis and Eos, hastened to Olympus to intercede with its mighty
ruler for the life of their sons. Resolved even in this instance not to act
in opposition to the Moirae, Zeus seized the golden scales {298} in which he
weighed the lot of mortals, and placed in it the respective fates of the
two heroes, whereupon that of Memnon weighed down the balance, thus
portending his death.

Eos abandoned Olympus in despair. Arrived