ANTILOCHUS

The son of Nestor, who accompanied his father to the Trojan War, and was distinguished among the younger heroes for beauty and bravery. Homer calls him a favourite of Zeus and Poseidon. The dearest friend of Achilles next to Patroclus, he is chosen by the Greeks to break the news to him of his beloved companion's fall. When Memnon attacks the aged Nestor, Antilochus throws himself in his way, and buys his father's safety with his life. He, like Patroclus, is avenged by Achilles, in whose grave-mound the ashes of both friends are laid; even in the lower world Odysseus beholds the three pacing the asphodel meadow, and in after times the inhabitants of Ilium offered to them jointly the sacrifices due to the dead on the foreland of Sigeum.