on the battlefield she beheld the
lifeless body of her son, who, after a long and brave defence, had at
length succumbed to the all-conquering arm of Achilles. At her command her
children, the Winds, flew down to the plain, and seizing the body of the
slain hero conveyed it through the air safe from the desecration of the
enemy.

The triumph of Achilles was not of long duration. Intoxicated with success
he attempted, at the head of the Greek army, to storm the city of Troy,
when Paris, by the aid of Phoebus-Apollo, aimed a well-directed dart at the
hero, which pierced his vulnerable heel, and he fell to the ground fatally
wounded before the Scaean gate. But though face to face with death, the
intrepid hero, raising himself from the ground, still performed prodigies
of valour, and not until his tottering limbs refused their office was the
enemy aware that the wound was mortal.

By the combined efforts of Ajax and Odysseus the body of Achilles was
wrested from the enemy after a long and terrible fight, and conveyed to the
Greek camp. Weeping bitterly over the untimely fate of her gallant son,
Thetis came to embrace him for the last time, and mingled her regrets and
lamentations with those of the whole Greek army. The funeral pyre was then
lighted, and the voices of the Muses were heard chanting his funeral dirge.
When, according to the custom of the ancients, the body had been burned on
the pyre, the bones of the hero were collected, inclosed in a golden urn,
and deposited beside the remains of his beloved friend Patroclus.

In the funereal games celebrated in honour of the fallen hero, the property
of her son was offered by Thetis as the prize of victory. But it was
unanimously agreed that the beautiful suit of armour made by Hephaestus
should be awarded to him who had contributed the most to the {299} rescue
of the body from the hands of the enemy. Popular opinion unanimously
decided in favour of Odysseus, which verdict was confirmed by the Trojan
prisoners who were present at the engagement. Unable to endure the slight,
the unfortunate Ajax lost his reason, and in this condition put an end to
his existence.

FINAL MEASURES.--Thus were the Greeks deprived at one and the same time of
their bravest and most powerful leader, and of him also who approached the
nearest to this distinction. For a time operations were at a standstill,
until Odysseus at length, contrived by means of a cleverly-arranged ambush
to capture Hel