leus, and his friend, Patroclus, and the cry of their
mourning went up together.

So the body of Hector was borne back to Ilion, and a great sacrifice
was done to the gods beneath the earth, that Hector might be welcomed
in the kingdom of Hades and Persephone. But the time drew nigh that
the doom of Achilles must be accomplished, and the spear of Phoebus
Apollo pierced his heart as they fought near the Scaean gates of Ilion.
In the dust lay the body of Achilles, while the Achaians fought the
whole day around it, till a mighty storm burst forth from the heaven.
Then they carried it away to the ships, and placed it on a couch, and
washed it in pure water. And once more from her coral caves beneath
the sea rose the silver-footed Thetis, and the cry of the nymphs who
followed her filled the air, so that the Achaians who heard it
trembled, and would have fled to the ships, but Nestor, the wise chief
of the Pylians, said, "Flee not, ye Argives, for those come to mourn
for the dead Achilles." So Thetis stood weeping by the body of her
child, and the nymphs wrapped it in shining robes. Many days and
nights they wept and watched around it, until at last they raised a
great pile of wood on the sea-shore, and the flame went up to heaven.
Then they gathered up the ashes, and placed them, with the ashes of
Patroclus, in a golden urn which Hephaistos wrought and gave to
Dionysus, and over it they raised a great cairn on the shore of the
Sea of Helle, that men might see it afar off as they sailed on the
broad waters.

THE VENGEANCE OF ODYSSEUS.

A fair breeze filled the sail of the Phaeakian ship in which Odysseus
lay asleep as in the dreamless slumber of the dead. The wild music of
the waves rose on the air as the bark sped on its glistening pathway,
but their murmur reached not the ear of the wanderer, for the spell of
Athene was upon him, and all his cares and griefs were for a little
while forgotten.

The dawn light was stealing across the eastern sky when the good ship
rode into the haven of the sea-god, Phorkys, and rested without anchor
or cable beneath the rocks which keep off the breath of the harsh
winds. At the head of the little bay a broad-leaved olive tree spread
its branches in front of a cave where the sea nymphs wove their
beautiful purple robes. Gently the sailors raised Odysseus in their
arms; gently they bore him from the ship, and placed him on the land
with the gifts which Alkinous and Arete and Naosikaa h