And as he wept, the old men wept with him, thinking each of what he had left at home.
But Zeus said to Athene: "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 Athene 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 none might wield but Achilles' self. Then he spake to his horses: "Take heed, Bayard and Piebald, that ye save your driver to-day, nor leave him dead on the field, as ye left Patroclus."
Then Hera gave to the horse Bayard a voice, so that he spake: "Surely we will save thee, great Achilles; yet for all that, doom is near to thee, nor are we the cause, but the gods and mastering Fate. Nor was it of us that Patroclus died, but Apollo slew him and gave the glory to Hector. So shalt thou, too, die by the hands of a god and of a mortal man."
And Achilles said: "What need to tell me of my doom? Right well I know it. Yet will I not cease till I have made the Trojans weary of battle."
CHAPTER XIX
THE BATTLE AT THE RIVER
Thus did Achilles go again into the battle, eager above all things to meet with Hector and to slay him.
But Apollo stood by Æneas, and spake to him, "Æneas, where are now thy boastings that thou wouldst meet Achilles face to face?"