unted his chariot and drove
at the head of his Myrmidons to the field, where he made such frightful
slaughter of the Trojans that the river Scamander was choked with their
corpses; and, indignant at being thus treated, sought to drown the hero
for his offence. Finally he met Hector, engaged him in battle, and
killed him with a thrust of his mighty spear. Then, fastening the corpse
of the Trojan hero to his chariot, he dragged it furiously over the
blood-soaked plain and around the city walls. Homer's story ends with
the funeral obsequies of the slain Patroclus and the burial by the
Trojans of Hector's recovered body.

Other writers tell us how the war went on. Hector was replaced by
Penthesileia, the beautiful and warlike queen of the Amazons, who came
to the aid of the Trojans, and drove the Greeks from the field. But,
alas! she too was slain by the invincible Achilles. Removing her
helmet, the victor was deeply affected to find that it was a beautiful
woman he had slain.

The mighty Memnon, son of godlike parents, now made his appearance in
the Trojan ranks, at the head of a band of black Ethiopians, with whom
he wrought havoc among the Greeks. At length Achilles encountered this
hero also, and a terrible battle ensued, whose result was long in doubt.
In the end Achilles triumphed and Memnon fell. But he died to become
immortal, for his goddess mother prayed for and obtained for him the
gift of immortal life.

Such triumphs were easy for Achilles, whose flesh no weapon could
pierce; but no one was invulnerable to the poets, and his end came at
last. He had routed the Trojans and driven them within their gates, when
Paris, aided by Apollo, the divine archer, shot an arrow at the hero
which struck him in his one pregnable spot, the heel. The fear of Thetis
was realized, her son died from the wound, and a fierce battle took
place for the possession of his body. This Ajax and Ulysses succeeded in
carrying off to the Grecian camp, where it was burned on a magnificent
funeral pile. Achilles, like his victim Memnon, was made immortal by the
favor of the gods. His armor was offered as a prize to the most
distinguished Grecian hero, and was adjudged to Ulysses, whereupon Ajax,
his close contestant for the prize, slew himself in despair.

We cannot follow all the incidents of the campaign. It will suffice to
say that Paris was himself slain by an arrow, that Neoptolemus, the son
of Achilles, took his place in the field, and