Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/275

Rh did I think that I only should perish here, but that thou shouldst return and show my son all that was mine, goods and servants and palace." And as he wept, the old men wept with him, thinking each of what he had left at home.

But Zeus said to Athené: "Carest thou not for Achilles that is so dear to thee? See, the other Greeks are gone to their meal, but he sits fasting." Then Athené leapt down from heaven, and shed into the breast of Achilles nectar and ambrosia, that his knees should not fail from hunger. Meanwhile the Greeks poured out to battle, and in the midst Achilles armed himself. He put the lordly greaves about his legs, and fitted the corselet on his breast. From his shoulders he hung the sword, and he took the great shield that Hephæstus had made, and it blazed as it were the heaven. Also he put the helmet on his head, and the plumes waved all around. Then he made trial of the arms, and they fitted him well, and bare him up like wings. Last he drew from its case his father's spear, which Cheiron cut on the top of Pelion, to be the