As the litter approached the city and was descried from the walls, the people poured forth to gaze once more on the face of their hero.  Foremost of all, the mother and the wife of Hector came, and at the sight of the lifeless body renewed their lamentations.  The people all wept with them, and to the going down of the sun there was no pause or abatement of their grief.

The next day preparations were made for the funeral solemnities.  For nine days the people brought wood and built the pile, and on the tenth they placed the body on the summit and applied the torch; while all Troy thronging forth encompassed the pile.  When it had completely burned, they quenched the cinders with wine, collected the bones and placed them in a golden urn, which they buried in the earth, and reared a pile of stones over the spot.

    “Such honors Ilium to her hero paid,
    And peaceful slept the mighty Hector’s shade.”

    —­Pope.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE FALL OF TROY—­RETURN OF THE GREEKS—­ORESTES AND ELECTRA

THE FALL OF TROY

The story of the Iliad ends with the death of Hector, and it is from the Odyssey and later poems that we learn the fate of the other heroes.  After the death of Hector, Troy did not immediately fall, but receiving aid from new allies still continued its resistance.  One of these allies was Memnon, the Aethiopian prince, whose story we have already told.  Another was Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, who came with a band of female warriors.  All the authorities attest their valor and the fearful effect of their war cry.  Penthesilea slew many of the bravest warriors, but was at last slain by Achilles.  But when the hero bent over his fallen foe, and contemplated her beauty, youth, and valor, he bitterly regretted his victory.  Thersites, an insolent brawler and demagogue, ridiculed his grief, and was in consequence slain by the hero.

Achilles by chance had seen Polyxena, daughter of King Priam, perhaps on the occasion of the truce which was allowed the Trojans for the burial of Hector.  He was captivated with her charms, and to win her in marriage agreed to use his influence with the Greeks to grant peace to Troy.  While in the temple of Apollo, negotiating the marriage, Paris discharged at him a poisoned arrow, which, guided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel, the only vulnerable part about him.  For Thetis his mother had dipped him when an infant in the river Styx, which made every part of him invulnerable except the heel by which she held him. [Footnote 1:  The story of the invulnerability of Achilles is not found in Homer, and is inconsistent with his account.  For how could Achilles require the aid of celestial armor if be were invulnerable?]