THE TROJAN SAGA AND THE ILIAD 471ACHILLES AND PENTHESILEA
After the funeral of Hector the fighting resumed, and Achilles killed the lead-
ers of two contingents that came from the ends of the earth to help the Trojans.
From the north came the Amazons—the legendary warrior women—led by
Penthesilea. Achilles killed her; in some versions, just as Achilles was about to
deal the fatal thrust, their eyes met and he fell in love with her.^23 Achilles
mourned over her death and her beauty and killed Thersites, who taunted him.^24
For this murder Achilles had to withdraw for a time to Lesbos, where he was
purified by Odysseus.ACHILLES AND MEMNON
A second foreign contingent was that of the Ethiopians, from the south. They
were led by Memnon, son of Eos (Aurora), goddess of the dawn, and of Tithonus
(a brother of Priam). After Memnon's death, his followers were turned into birds
that fought around his tomb. Achilles did not long survive these victories.THE DEATH OF ACHILLES
As he pursued the Trojans toward the city, Achilles was fatally wounded in
the heel by an arrow shot by Paris with the help of Apollo. After a fierce fight,
his corpse was recovered by Ajax, son of Telamon, and buried at Sigeum, the
promontory near Troy. Agamemnon's ghost tells the ghost of Achilles about
the battle over his corpse and his splendid funeral. The Greeks prepared the
corpse for cremation and shaved their heads. Thetis herself came from the sea
accompanied by her sea-nymphs, and, with the Muses, they mourned with wail-
ing and dirges, while the Greeks wept (Odyssey 24. 63-70):f
For seventeen days and nights, immortal gods and mortal men, we wept for
you. On the eighteenth we gave you to burning fire, and we sacrificed flocks of
fat sheep. You were burned in the clothing of the gods, anointed with oil and
sweet honey. Many of the Achaean heroes paraded in armor around the burn-
ing pyre, men on foot and horseback, and a loud roar arose.
Agamemnon describes how Achilles' bones were put in a golden urn
by Thetis, mixed with those of Patroclus. Then the great tomb was raised, and
Thetis gave funeral games in honor of her dead son. Thus Achilles, the greatest
of Greek heroes, was given a funeral and burial that would ensure his fame for
posterity.^25
The ghost of Achilles appeared to the Greeks after the sack of Troy and de-
manded that Polyxena, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba, be sacrificed at his
tomb. The sacrifice of Polyxena is one of the principal themes of Euripides'
tragedy Hecuba, in which the dignity and virtue of Polyxena are a striking
contrast to the violence of the young Greeks and their leaders. Thus