Then there were funeral games at which valuable prizes, given by Achilles, were competed for,--prizes of gold and silver, and shining weapons, and vases, and steeds, and oxen. Diomede won the prize in the chariot race, for he ran with the immortal horses he had taken in battle from Æneas. In the wrestling match Ulysses and Ajax Telamon were the rival champions. Both displayed such strength and skill that it could not be decided which was the victor, and so a prize of equal value was given to each. Ajax Telamon also competed with Diomede in a combat with swords, and both were declared equal and received each a prize. In the contest with bow and arrows, Teuʹcer and Me-riʹo-nes were the competitors, and a dove tied to the top of a mast fixed in the ground, was the object aimed at. Teucer missed the bird, but he struck and cut the cord that fastened her to the pole, and she flew up into the heavens. Then Meriones shot at her with his arrow. The weapon pierced the dove beneath the wing and she fell to the earth. This feat was greatly admired by the spectators, and Meriones received as his prize ten double-bladed battle-axes. To Teucer, whose performance was also much applauded, a prize of ten single-bladed axes was given. Thus did Achilles honor his dead friend by funeral rites and funeral games. But his wrath against Hector still continued, even when he had dragged the hero's body at his chariot wheels three times round the tomb of Patroclus. This cruel insult he repeated at dawn for several days. But Apollo watched the body. Apollo, moved With pity for the hero, kept him free From soil or stain, though dead, and o'er him held The golden ægis, lest, when roughly dragged Along the ground, the body might be torn. BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book XXIV. [Illustration: MERIONES' WONDERFUL SHOT. _Drawn by Hubbell._] But at last the gods, with the exception of Juno, were moved to pity, and on the twelfth day from the death of the Trojan hero, Jupiter summoned Thetis to Olympus, and bade her command Achilles to restore Hector's body to his parents. He also sent Iris with a message to King Priam, telling him to go to the Greek fleet, bearing with him a suitable ransom for his son. Thetis promptly carried out the order of Jupiter. She told her son of the command of the king of heaven, and Achilles answered that since it was the will of Jove he was ready to obey. "Let him who brings the ransom come and take The body, if it be the will of Jove." BRYANT, _Iliad_, Book XXIV.