burst into a lamentation so bitter that his mother heard him in her
sea-cave and came forth to learn what new sorrow had taken him. Too
late he learned the hard lesson that revenge may be sweet but is
always bought at the cost of some far greater thing.

"I could not bring salvation to Patroclus or my men, but sit at the
ships a useless burden upon the land, albeit I am such a man as no
other in war, though others excel me in speech. Perish strife from
among men and gods, and anger which inciteth even a prudent man to
take offence; far sweeter than dropping honey it groweth in a man's
heart like smoke, even now as Agamemnon hath roused me to a fury."

Being robbed of his armour he could not sally out to convey his
companion's body into the camp. Hera therefore sent Iris to him
bidding him merely show himself at the trenches and cry aloud. At the
sound of his thrice-repeated cry the Trojans shrank back in terror,
leaving the Greeks to carry in Patroclus' body unmolested; then Hera
bade the sun set at once into the ocean to end the great day of
battle.

Polydamas knew well what the appearance of Achilles portended to the
Trojans, for he was the one man among them who could look both before
and after; his advice was that they should retire into the town and
there shut themselves up. It was received with scorn by Hector. In the
Greek camp Achilles burst into a wild lament over Patroclus, swearing
that he would not bury him before he had brought in Hector dead and
twelve living captives to sacrifice before the pyre. That night his
mother went to Hephaestus and persuaded him to make divine armour for
her son, which the poet describes in detail.