A) Philostratus, On Heroes 45.5-7: When he became an ephebe, a brightness radiated from his face, and his body was beyond natural size, since he grew more easily than do trees near springs. He was celebrated much at symposia and much in serious endeavors. When he appeared to yield to anger, Kheirôn taught him music. Music was enough to tame the readiness and rising of his disposition. Without exertion, he thoroughly learned the musical modes, and he sang to a lyre. He used to sing of the ancient comrades, Hyacinthus and Narcissus, and something about Adonis. And the lamentations for Hyllas and Abdêros being fresh - since, when both were ephebes, the one was carried into a spring until he disappeared, and upon the other the horses of Diomedes feasted, not without tears did he sing of these matters.

I also heard these things: that he sacrificed to Calliope asking for musical skill and mastery of poetic composition, and that the goddess appeared to him in his sleep and said, "Child, I give you enough musical and poetic skill that you might make banquets more pleasant and lay sufferings to rest. But since it seems both to me and to Athena that you are skilled in war and powerful even in dangerous situations, the Fates command thus: practice those skills and desire them as well. There will be a poet in the future whom I shall send forth to sing your deeds." This was prophesied to him about Homer.

B) Philostratus, On Heroes 47.4, 51.1-6: Achilles did not even die in his armor, but thinking that he was going to a wedding, he died unarmed and wreathed with a crown just like bridegrooms. (...) Achilles' life came to an end, which Homer also knows. He says that Achilles died at the hands of both Paris and Apollo, knowing, I suppose, what happened in Thymbraion, and how Achilles fell, murdered treacherously while engaged in sacrifices and sacred oaths, of which he made Apollo a witness. The sacrifice of Polyxena on his tomb and Achilles' passion for her, which you hear from the poets, happened like this: Achilles loved Polyxena and was negotiating this marriage for himself with the understanding that he would make the Achaeans withdraw from Ilion. Polyxena also loved Achilles; they had seen one another during the ransom negotiations for Hektor. For when Priam came to Achilles, he made his own child lead him by the hand, since she was the youngest of those Hekabê had borne for him. (Younger children always used to assist their fathers' step.) And thus Achilles so displayed a certain self-control by his sense of justice, even in his amorous desires, that he did not abduct the girl, even though she was under his power, but promised Priam a marriage with her and trusted him when he delayed the wedding. After he died unarmed, uttering oaths about these matters, Polyxena is said to have deserted and fled to the Hellenic army, as the Trojan women were fleeing from the sanctuary and the Trojan men were scattered (they did not even carry away Achilles' corpse without fear). Polyxena was brought to Agamemnon to live in his excellent and discreet care, just as in the house of her father. But when Achilles' body had already been buried for three days, she ran to the tomb at night and leaned upon asword while speaking many words of pity and marriage.

C) Philostratus, On Heroes 51.12-13: This hill, my guest, which you see standing in line with the headland, the Achaeans erected when they came together at the time when Achilles was mingled with Patroklos in the tomb and bequeathed to himself and that man the loveliest shroud. For this reason they who praise the marks of friendship sing of him. He was buried most spectacularly of mortals with all that Hellas offered to him. The Hellenes no longer considered it proper after Achilles' death to wear their hair long, and they piled up in mass on a funeral pyre their gold and whatever each of them had, whether he had brought it to Troy or had taken it as booty, both right then and when Neoptolemos came to Troy. For Achilles obtained glorious gifts again from both his child and the Achaeans, who were trying to show in return their gratitude to him, and even those who made the voyage from Troy fell upon the tomb and believed that they were embracing Achilles.

D) Philostratus, On Heroes 52.3-53.13: From Thessaly, of course, Achilles also received hymns, which they sang at night when they visiting his tomb every year, mixing something of an initiatory rite with their offerings to the dead, as both the Lemnians and the Peloponnesians descended from Sisyphus practice... The Thessalian offerings which came regularly to Achilles from Thessaly were decreed for the Thessalians by the oracle at Dodona... When they approached the tomb after this hymn, a shield was struck heavily as in battle, and together they cried aloud with rhythmic rapid delivery, calling repeatedly upon Achilles. When they had wreathed the summit of the hill and dug offering pits on it, they slaughtered the black bull as to one who is dead. They also summoned Patroklos to the feast, in the belief that they were doing this to please Achilles. After they cut up the victim and made this sacrifice, they immediately went down to the ship, and after sacrificing the other bull on the beach again to Achilles and having begun the offering by taking from the basket and by partaking of the entrails for that sacrifice (for they made this sacrifice as to a god), they sailed away toward dawn, taking the sacrificed animal so as not to feast in the enemy's country.

E) Philostratus, On Heroes 53.16-17: [The Thessalians] invoked Achilles against Darius, and along with him Balios and Xanthos [= Achilles' horses], as they shouted these prayers from their horses. But after Darius was captured and Alexander was in India, the Thessalians reduced the sacrifices and sent black lambs. Because the sacrifices did not even reach Troy, and if each arrived in broad daylight, they were not done in proper order, Achilles became angry. And if I should relate how much harm he hurled upon Thessaly, the tale would be tedious...

Phoenician: You speak of an anger that is "ruinous" and implacable, vinedresser.

F) Philostratus, On Heroes 54.12-55.3: Achilles and Helen are said to drink together and to be engaged in singing. They celebrate in song their desire for one another, Homer's epics on the Trojan war, and Homer himself. Achilles still praises the gift of poetry which came to him from Calliope, and he pursues it more seriously, since he has ceased from military activities. At any rate, my guest, his song about Homer was composed with divine inspiration and the art of poetry. Indeed, Protesilaos knows and sings that song... Many of those who approach the island say that they hear Achilles singing other things as well, but only last year, I believe, did he compose this song, which is most graceful in thought and intentions. It goes like this:

Echo, dwelling round about the vast waters
beyond great Pontus,
my lyre serenades you by my hand.
And you, sing to me divine Homer,
glory of men,
glory of our sufferings,
through whom I did not die,
through whom Patroklos is mine,
through whom my Ajax is
equal to the immortals,
through whom Troy, celebrated by the skilled as won by the spear,
gained glory and did not fall.

G) Philostratus, On Heroes 56.6-10: Achilles himself is said to have appeared to a merchant who once visited the island often, related what took place in Troy, entertained him with drink as well, and ordered him after sailing to Ilion to bring him a Trojan maiden, saying that this particular woman was a slave to a certain man in Ilion. When the guest was astonished at the command and because of his new-found boldness asked Achilles why he needed a Trojan slave, Achilles said, "Because, my guest, she was born of the lineage from which Hektor and those living before him came and is what remains of the blood of the descendants of Priam and Dardanos." Of course, the merchant thought that Achilles was in love, and after he bought the maiden, he sailed back to the island... When he arrived Achilles gave him many things that merchants are unable to resist; he said that he considered him a guest-friend and granted him lucrative trade and safe passage for his ship. When day came, he said, "Sail away with these things, but leave the girl on the shore for me." They had not yet gone a stade away from the land when the girl's wailing struck them, because Achilles was pulling her apart and tearing her limb from limb.

H) Iliad 20.288-308: Aeneas would then have struck Achilles as he was springing towards him, either on the helmet, or on the shield that covered him, and Achilles would have closed with him and dispatched him with his sword, had not Poseidon lord of the earthquake been quick to mark, and said forthwith to the immortals, "Alas, I feel grief [akhos] for great Aeneas, who will now go down to the house of Hades, vanquished by the son of Peleus. Fool that he was to give ear to the counsel of Apollo. Apollo will never save him from destruction. Why should this man have grief [akhos] when he is guiltless, to no purpose, and in another's quarrel? Has he not at all times offered acceptable sacrifice to the gods that dwell in heaven? Let us then snatch him from death's jaws, lest the son of Kronos be angry should Achilles slay him. It is fated, moreover, that he should escape, and that the race of Dardanos, whom Zeus loved above all the sons born to him of mortal women, shall not perish utterly without seed or sign. For now indeed has Zeus hated the blood of Priam, while Aeneas shall reign over the Trojans, he and his children's children that shall be born hereafter."

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