The death of Achilles - Part V

When Achilles fell, the Trojans tried to seize his body, but great Ajax stood beside it, holding his shield between it and the enemy, while Odysseus fought bravely by his side. At last, protected by Ajax and his great shield, Odysseus took up the body of Achilles on his broad shoulders and carried it back to the camp.

The Greeks sorrowed more bitterly for Achilles than for any of the other heroes who had fallen before Troy. The whole army built him a splendid funeral pile, and Thetis herself came to the camp of the Myrmidons to weep for her brave son, killed in the flower of his youth, as she had known he would be. After Thetis and Briseis had wept over his body, the Myrmidons burned it upon the funeral pile, flinging their richest treasures into the flames to show honour to their king. Then they gathered up his ashes and buried them on the sea¬shore, close to the sparkling waters of the Hellespont.