The Story of the Iliad by Alfred John Church

And Achilles stood among his Myrmidons and said: --

"Vain was the promise that I made to Menœtius that I would bring / back his son with his portion of the spoils of Troy. For he lies / dead, nor shall I return to the house of Peleus, my father, for I, / too, must die in this land. But thee, O Patroclus, I will not bury / till I bring hither the head and the arms of Hector, and twelve men / of Troy to slay at thy funeral pile."

/ Men-œ'-ti-us.

So they washed the body of Patroclus and anointed it, putting / ointment nine years old into the wounds, and laid it on a bed, and / covered it with a linen cloth from the head to the feet, and laid a / white robe over it. All night the Myrmidons mourned for Patroclus / dead.

But Thetis went to the house of Hephestus. She found him busy at his / work, making twenty cauldrons with three feet, that were to stand / about the house of the gods. Golden wheels had they beneath, that / they might go of their own motion into the chambers of the gods, and / of their own motion return. But Grace, the wife of Hephestus, espied / Thetis, and caught her by the hands, and led her in, and set her on a / silver-studded chair, and put a chair beneath her feet. Then she / called to her husband, saying: --

"Come quick. Thetis would have somewhat of thee."

And he said: "Verily, she was my saviour in the day of trouble; for / my mother cast me out because I was lame, but Thetis and her sister / received me in the sea. Nine years I dwelt with them, and hammered / many a trinket in a hollow cave. Verily, I would pay the price of my / life for Thetis."

Then he put away his tools, and washed himself, and took a staff in / his hand, and came into the house, and sat upon a chair, and said: / "Speak all thy mind. I will do thy pleasure, if it can be done."

Then did Thetis tell him of her son Achilles, and of the wrong that / had been done to him, and of his wrath, and of how Patroclus was / dead, and that the arms that he had had were lost.

"Make me now," she said, "for him a shield and a helmet, and greaves, / and a corselet."

/ greaves, armour for the legs.

And Hephestus answered: "Be of good cheer. Would that I could keep / from him the doom of death as easily as I can make him such arms that / a man will wonder when he looks upon them."

Then he went to his smithy, and turned the bellows to the fire, and / bade them work. Also he put bronze and tin and gold and silver into / the fire, to melt them, and set the anvil, and took the hammer in one / hand, and the tongs in the other.

First he made a shield, great and strong, and fastened thereto a belt / of silver. On it he wrought the earth, and the sky, and the sea, and / the sun, and the moon, and all the stars. He wrought also two / cities. In the one there was peace, and about the other there was / war. For in the first they led a bride to her home with music and / dancing, and the women stood in the doors to see the show, but about / the other city there sat an army besieging it, and the men of the / city stood upon the wall defending it. These had also set an ambush / by a river where the herds were wont to drink. And when the herds / came down, they rose up and took them and slew the herdsmen. But the / army of the besiegers heard the cry, and came swiftly on horses, and / fought by the bank of the river. Also he wrought one field where / many men drove the plough, and another where reapers reaped the corn, / and boys gathered it in their arms to bind into sheaves, while the / lord stood glad at heart, beholding them. Also he wrought a / vineyard, wherein was a path, and youths and maidens bearing baskets / of grapes, and in the midst a boy played on a harp of gold and sang a / pleasant song. Also he made a herd of oxen going from the stables to / the pastures, and herdsmen and dogs, and in the front two lions had / caught a mighty bull and were devouring it, while the dogs stood far / off and barked. Also he made a sheepfold; also a marvellous dance of / men and maidens, and these had coronets of gold, and those daggers of / gold hanging from belts of silver. And round about the shield he / wrought the great river of ocean.

Besides the shield, he also made corselet brighter than fire, and a / great helmet with a ridge of gold for the crest, and greaves of tin. / And when he had finished all the armour, he set them before the / mother of Achilles. Like to a hawk did she leap from Olympus, / carrying them to her son. And when she came to the ships, she found / him lying on the earth with his arms about the body of Patroclus, / weeping aloud, and his men stood about lamenting.

The goddess stood in the midst, and clasped her son by the hand, and / spake: "Come, now, let us leave the dead man; for he hath been slain / according to the ordering of the gods. And do thou receive from / Hephestus this armour, exceeding beautiful, such as man never yet / wore upon his shoulders."

So she spake, and cast the armour before Achilles. Loud did it / rattle as it fell, and the Myrmidons feared to look upon the sight. / But Achilles took the splendid armour into his hand, and was glad, / and spake, saying: "Mother, the gods have given me arms, such as it / is fitting should be made in heaven, and I vow I will arm me for the / fight. Yet much I fear that decay will mar the body of Patroclus, / now that the life hath gone from out of it."

But Thetis made answer: "Let not this trouble thee; I will keep decay / from his flesh, yea, though he should lie here till the year come / round again. Go, then, and call the people to the assembly, and put / away thy wrath against King Agamemnon, and arm thyself for the / battle."

So she spake, putting trust and valour into his soul; and into the / nostrils of the dead man she poured ambrosia and ruddy nectar, that / his flesh might be sweet.