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Achilles would no longer go out to fight. As a result, the barbarians recovered their confidence and advanced outside the city. Alexander fought in single combat against Menelaos, but when Alexander faced defeat, Aphrodite snatched him away; and Pandaros broke the truce by shooting an arrow at Menelaos.
2Diomedes performed deeds of valour* and wounded Aphrodite when she came to the aid of Aeneas; and when he encountered Glaucos, he remembered the friendship between their fathers and exchanged armour* with him. Hector challenged the bravest man present to single combat. Although many stepped forward, Aias was chosen by lot and engaged in combat; but the pair were separated at nightfall by the heralds.
3To protect the anchorage, the Greeks constructed a wall and a ditch; and after a battle on the plain, the Trojans chased the Greeks to the safety of their wall. The Greeks dispatched Odysseus, Phoenix, and Aias as envoys to Achilles, to ask him to assist them in the fighting and promise him Briseis and other gifts. 4At nightfall, they sent Odysseus and Diomedes on reconnaissance; and they killed Dolon, son of Eumelos, and Rhesos the Thracian (who had arrived the previous day as anally of the Trojans, and because he had yet to enter battle, had set up camp at some distance from the Trojan force, and separately from Hector). They also killed the twelve men who were sleeping around Rhesos and took their horses to the ships. sThe next day, a fierce battle developed. Agamemnon, Diomedes, Odysseus, Eurypylos, and Machaon were wounded, and the Greeks were put to flight; Hector breached the wall and passed inside, and after Aias had retreated, set fire to the ships.
6When he saw the ship of Protesilaos in flames, Achilles sent out Patroclos with the Myrmidons, equipping him with his own arms and lending him his horses. When the Trojans saw Patroclos, they took him for Achilles, and turned to flee. Patroclos pursued them up to the city wall, killing many of them, including Sarpedon, son of Zeus, but met his own death at the hand of Hector after first being wounded by Euphorbos. 7In the fierce battle that developed for his corpse, Aias performed deeds of valour and, with difficulty, rescued the body. Achilles now put his anger aside, and recovered Briseis; and when a full set of arms was brought to him from Hephaistos, he put on the armour and went out to fight. He chased the Trojans in a mass as far as the Scamander, killing many of them including Asteropaios, son of Pelagon, son of the River Axios. The river rushed out at him in fury, 8but Hephaistos turned its flooding waters dry, and pursued it [back to its bed] with a massive flame.* And Achilles killed Hector in single combat, and tying him by the ankles to his chariot, dragged him back to the ships. When he had buried Patroclos, he celebrated games in his honour, in the course of which Diomedes won the chariot race, Epeios the boxing, and Aias and Odysseus the wrestling. After the games, Priam visited Achilles, and ransomed Hector’s body and buried it.
Penthesileia the Amazon; Memnon and the death of Achilles; the suicide of Aias
lPenthesileia, daughter of Otrere and Ares, had accidentally
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killed Hippolyte* and had been purified by Priam. She killed many Greeks in battle, including Machaon, but later died at the hand of Achilles, who fell in love with the Amazon after her death, and killed Thersites* for abusing him. [ 2]†
3Memnon,* the son of Tithonos and Dawn, arrived at Troy to fight the Greeks, accompanied by a large force of Ethiopians, and after killing many of the Greeks, including Antilochos, he met his own death at the hand of Achilles. When Achilles went in pursuit of the Trojans also, he was shot down in front of the Scaean Gates* by Alexander and Apollo, with an arrow in the ankle.* 4In the fight for his body, Aias killed Glaucos, and asking someone else to carry Achilles’ arms to the ships, he picked up the body, and surrounded by the enemy, carried it away through a hail of missiles while Odysseus fought off the attackers.
5At the death of Achilles, the army was filled with gloom. They buried him with Patroclos [on the White Island*], mixing the bones of the pair together. It is said that Achilles lives on after his death as the husband of Medea on the Isles of the Blessed.* The Greeks held games in his honour, in the course of which Eumelos won the chariot race and Diomedes the footrace, Aias the discus-throwing, and Teucros the archery. 6When Achilles’ armour was offered as a prize to the bravest, Aias and Odysseus entered the lists. With the Trojans acting as judges,* or according to some, the allies,* Odysseus was picked as the winner. Aias was so overcome by resentment that he planned a night attack on the army; but Athene drove him out of his wits and turned him against the cattle, sword in hand, and in his delusion, he slaughtered the cattle along with their herdsmen, supposing them to be the Achaeans.* 7Afterwards, however, when he had recovered his wits, Aias killed himself.* Agamemnon ordered that his body should not be burned, so Aias alone of the men who fell at Ilion lies in a coffin. His grave is at Rhoiteion.
Philoctetes and the death of Paris; conditions for the fall of Troy
8When the war had already lasted for ten years and the Greeks were losing heart, Calchas prophesied that Troy could not be taken unless they had the bow of Heracles* to help them. On hearing this prophecy, Odysseus made his way to Lemnos with Diomedes to see Philoctetes,* and gaining possession of his bow by a trick, he persuaded him to sail to Troy. So Philoctetes arrived there, and after he had been cured by Podaleirios,* killed Alexander with an arrow.
9After the death of Alexander, Helenos and Deiphobos quarrelled over Helen’s hand; and because Deiphobos was preferred, Helenos left Troy and went to live on Mount Ida. But when Calchas declared that Helenos had knowledge of the oracles that protected the city, Odysseus captured him in an ambush and brought him to the camp; 10and Helenos was forced to reveal* how Ilion could be captured. This could be achieved if, in the first place, the bones of Pelops* were brought to the Greeks, and then if Neoptolemos fought as their ally, and thirdly, if the Palladion (which had fallen from heaven) was stolen from Troy—for while it remained inside the walls, the city was impregnable.
11When they heard this, the Greeks had the bones of Pelops brought over, and sent Odysseus and Phoenix to Lycomedes on Scyros to persuade him to allow Neoptolemos* to go to war. So Neoptolemos arrived in the camp, where he received his father’s arms from Odysseus, who willingly surrendered them; and he killed a large number of the Trojans. 12Eurypylos, the son of Telephos, later arrived as an ally of the Trojans, bringing with him a powerful force of Mysians. He performed deeds of valour, but died at the hand of Neoptolemos.*
13Odysseus went up to the city with Diomedes by night. Leaving Diomedes waiting outside, he assumed a mean appearance and put on shabby clothing, and entered the city undetected in the guise of a beggar. He was recognized, however, by Helen, and with her assistance he stole the Palladion, and then, after killing many of the guards, he took it to the ships with the aid of Diomedes.*
The wooden horse
14Odysseus later had the idea of constructing a wooden horse, and he suggested it to Epeios,* who was an architect. Using timber felled on Mount Ida, Epeios constructed a horse that was hollow within and opened up at the side. Odysseus urged fifty—or according to the author of the Little Iliad, three thousand*—of the bravest men to enter this horse; as for all the rest, they were to burn their tents when night fell and put out to sea, but then lie in wait off Tenedos, ready to sail back again the following night. 15Persuaded by his plan, the Greeks put their bravest men inside the horse, making Odysseus their commander; and they carved an inscription on it reading, ‘For their return home, a thank-offering to Athene from the Greeks.’ The others burned their tents, and leaving Sinon in place to light a beacon for them, they put out to sea at night and lay in wait off Tenedos.