It became even more difficult for the Trojans to repel the onslaught of the Greeks after the death of Penthesilia. But unexpectedly, help came to them once again. From the shores of the gray Ocean, swirling its water around the entire earth, Memnon arrived with a huge army of Ethiopians in Troy. He was the son of the beautiful dawn goddess Eos and Typhon and a relative of Priam. No mortal could match his beauty. Like the morning star, he shone among the Trojan army in his golden armor, forged by the god Hephaestus himself.
A worthy opponent for Achilles was Memnon, the mighty son of the goddess. A frantic battle began again under the walls of Troy. Memnon fought ahead of the Trojans, Achilles fought ahead of the Greeks. But he avoided meeting Memnon. The son of Thetis knew that if he killed Memnon, he himself would soon die from Apollo’s arrow. Memnon attacked Elder Nestor. How could an aged hero fight with young Memnon?
Nestor turned his horses and wanted to escape. But Paris strained his bow and struck one of Nestor’s horses with an arrow. Seeing that he was threatened with imminent death, Nestor called for help from his son Antilochus. The faithful son hastened to help his father. He decided it would be better to die than to let Memnon kill his father. Antilochus grabbed a huge stone and threw it at Memnon. But the helmet forged by the god Hephaestus protected the son of the goddess Eos from the blow. Memnon struck Antilochus in the chest with a spear, and the son of Nestor fell dead to the ground with his heart pierced, paying with his life for the life of his father. Elder Nestor burst into tears when he saw the death of his son. Memnon, despite the fact that another son of Nestor, Thrasymedes, attacked him, with his friend Phereus, wanted to remove the armor from the murdered Antilochus. Nestor himself rushed to defend the corpse of his son, but Memnon did not fight with the old man, he did not raise his hand against him. The Greeks and Ethiopians fought furiously around the body of Antilochus. Nestor called on the mighty Achilles for help. Achilles was horrified when he learned that Antilochus had died. After all, he loved him more than all the heroes; after Patroclus he was his best friend. Forgetting about everything, forgetting that he himself must die after Memnon, Achilles rushed into battle. Seeing Achilles approaching, Memnon threw a huge stone at him, but the stone bounced far away, hitting the shield. Achilles wounded Memnon in the shoulder with a spear. Memnon did not pay attention to the wound; he himself wounded the son of Peleus in the hand. The heroes drew their swords and rushed at each other. Both of them were equal in strength to each other, both were the sons of goddesses, both of them wore armor forged by the god Hephaestus. The heroes fought behind their shields. The gods watched this fight from high Olympus. The mothers of the heroes, the goddess Eos and the goddess Thetis, each prayed to Zeus for their son. Zeus took the golden scales, placed the heroes' lots on them and weighed them. Memnon's lot sank low, promising him the fate of falling at the hands of Achilles. The goddess Eos began to weep: she had to lose her dearly beloved son. Finally, Achilles swung his heavy spear and pierced Memnon’s chest. The goddess Eos covered herself with a dark cloud as a sign of sadness. She sent her sons, the gods of the wind, to the battlefield, and they brought the body of Memnon far to the banks of the Esepa River. There the young nymphs mourned him and built a tomb for him.
The Ethiopians were turned into birds by the gods. Since then, every year they fly to the shores of Esep to the tomb of Memnon and there they mourn their king.
The Greeks buried young Antilochus with great honors. His ashes were placed in an urn and subsequently placed in the same mound with the ashes of Achilles and Patroclus.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru