Book XVI

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Then there was a long and terrific fight around the corpse of the fallen champion. The description of it occupies a whole book of the Iliad. The armor Patroclus wore was, as we have seen, the rich armor of Achilles, and the Trojans were eager to get possession of it. They wished also to get possession of the hero's body, that his friends might not have the satisfaction of performing the usual funeral rites in his honor. Menelaus was the first to stand guard over the body, and Euphorbus was the first to fall in the fight. Hector had gone in pursuit of the charioteer, Automedon, thinking to slay him, and capture the immortal horses of Achilles. But Apollo warned him against the attempt.

"Hector, thou art pursuing what thy feet Will never overtake, the steeds which draw The chariot of Achilles. Hard it were For mortal man to tame them or to guide, Save for Achilles, goddess-born. Meanwhile Hath warlike Menelaus, Atreus' son, Guarding the slain Patroclus, overthrown Euphorbus, bravest of the Trojan host."

BRYANT, _Iliad_,