Achilles had captured Pedasos when he took the city of Eetion. Pedasos was mortal, but he could keep up with the divine horses. Sarpedon , prince of Lycia and ally of Troy, killed Pedasos when his spear missed Patroclus. Achilles' comrade-in-arms Patroclus used to feed and groom these horses. In the Iliad , it is told how, when Patroclus was killed in battle, Xanthus and Balius stood motionless on the field of battle, and wept.
One portion of the army heads for the city while another group seeks refuge near the River Xanthos. Achilles cuts off the second group and kills many of them as they try to cross the stream. He also takes twelve captives, as he vowed he would. The slaughter continues, and soon the river is choked with bodies.
The god of the river is antagonized by all this bloodshed in his waters, and so he attacks Achilles with great waves and currents. Achilles begins to falter under this onslaught, but Poseidon and Athena reassure him, while Hera and Hephaistos attack the river with fire.
Seeing his water boil away in great, mysterious heat, Xanthos relents. Following this, the gods also engage in combat, so excited are they by human warfare. Athena defeats Ares and Aphrodite, while Hera drives Artemis from the field. Poseidon challenges Apollo, but the younger god does not accept his uncle's dare because of deference to his age. Achilles continues to chase the Trojans, and Agenor, a half-brother of Hektor, attempts to fight him in single combat; but Agenor is far inferior to Achilles, and Apollo finally rescues him.
A few interesting tidbits about Xanthos from the Iliad. When Achilles is sending Patroclos out to fight, he lends him his horses and chariot, despite that he forbids Patroclos from leaving the camp. Of course, the charioteer Automedon goes, too, so that Patroclos can fight, rather than waste time on the horses. Though during the funeral games, Achilles says that Patroclos was the finest charioteer his horses ever had.
Despite that controlling them is his sole job as a charioteer. When Achilles sets out to battle, preparing for his vengeance on Hector, he reproaches his horses for having failed to save Patroclos when he was in danger, and says that they had better not do that to him, too! But Achilles was in for a surprise, because Xanthos actually answered him! But the day of your death is near.
We are not to blame, but a great god and compelling fate. No slowness or tardiness of ours let the Trojans tear the armour from Patroclos; but that most powerful god, the son of beauteous Leto, slew him in the forefront of the fray and gave Hector his triumph. We could run swift as the west wind, lightest of all the winds that blow; but it is your own fate to fall by the strength of a god and a man.
However, confession time! That was so not what I pictured when I read that line. Of course I was thinking about Thor bashing Xanthos with his hammer. Of course I was! There is no need. No matter. I will not stop till I have driven the Trojans to the limit of what they can endure in war.
Achilles had captured Pedasos when he took the city of Eetion. Pedasos was mortal, but he could keep up with the divine horses. Sarpedon, prince of Lycia and ally of Troy, killed Pedasos when his spear missed Patroclus. In the Iliad, it is told how, when Patroclus was killed in battle, Xanthus and Balius stood motionless on the field of battle, and wept.
At Iliad When Xanthus was rebuked by the grieving Achilles for allowing Patroclus to be slain, Hera granted Xanthus human speech which broke Divine law, allowing the horse to say that a god had killed Patroclus and that a god would soon kill Achilles too.
After this, the Erinyes struck the horse dumb. Another Xanthus, not to be confused with the horse mentioned above, was one of the horses of Diomedes of Thrace, who fed these animals on human flesh. The capture of these horses was the eighth of the Twelve Labors of the Great Heracles. In truth Automedon, the powerful son of Diores, hit them over and over again with the stroke of the flying lash, or talked to them, sometimes entreating them, sometimes threatening.
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