Book XVI

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Even the mighty Hector was not able to stop the flight of the panic-stricken Trojans, who seemed for the moment to have lost all their courage, so great was their fear at the name of Achilles. The hero Sarpedon at the head of his brave Lycians attempted to turn back the onset of the Myrmidons, and he sought out their leader to engage him in single combat. Both warriors sprang from their chariots at the same moment, and rushed at each other, hurling their spears. Twice Sarpedon missed his foe, but one of the weapons killed Pedasus, the horse of "mortal stock." The leader of the Myrmidons cast his javelin with truer aim, for it pierced the Lycian chief right in the breast, and the hero fell like a tall pine tree falling in the forest at the last blow of the woodman's ax.

Then a fierce conflict took place over the body, the Greeks seeking to obtain possession of the warrior's armor, which they did after many on both sides had been slain in the struggle. The body itself was sent by Apollo, at Jupiter's command, to Lycia, that the hero's kinsmen there might perform funeral rites in his honor.

In robes of heaven He clothed him, giving him to Sleep and Death, Twin brothers, and swift bearers of the dead, And they, with speed conveying it, laid down The corpse in Lycia's broad and opulent realm.

BRYANT, _Iliad_,