With the assistance of the god Hermes (Argeiphontes), Hector's father Priam goes to Achilles' tent to plead with Achilles for the return of Hector's body so that he can be buried
Achilles relents and promises a truce for the duration of the funeral, lasting 9 days with a burial on the 10th (in the tradition of Niobe's offspring)
The poem ends with a description of Hector's funeral, with the doom of Troy and Achilles himself still to come
When Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons and daughter of Ares, arrives in Troy, Priam hopes that she will defeat Achilles
After his temporary truce with Priam, Achilles fights and kills the warrior queen, only to grieve over her death later
Initially taken aback, he did not fight as intensely as usual
Once he realized that his distraction was endangering his life, he refocused and killed her
Following the death of Patroclus, Nestor's son Antilochus becomes Achilles' closest companion
When Memnon, son of the Dawn Goddess Eos and king of Ethiopia, slays Antilochus, Achilles once more obtains revenge on the battlefield, killing Memnon
Consequently, Eos will not let the sun rise until Zeus persuades her
The fight between Achilles and Memnon over Antilochus echoes that of Achilles and Hector over Patroclus, except that Memnon (unlike Hector) was also the son of a goddess
Many Homeric scholars argued that episode inspired many details in the Iliads description of the death of Patroclus and Achilles' reaction to it
The episode then formed the basis of the cyclic epic Aethiopis, which was composed after the Iliad, possibly in the 7th century BC
The Aethiopis is now lost, except for scattered fragments quoted by later authors
Achilles and Patroclus 

The exact nature of Achilles' relationship with Patroclus has been a subject of dispute in both the classical period and modern times
In the Iliad, it appears to be the model of a deep and loyal friendship
Homer does not suggest that Achilles and his close friend Patroclus had sexual relations
Although there is no direct evidence in the text of the Iliad that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers, this theory was expressed by some later authors
Commentators from classical antiquity to the present have often interpreted the relationship through the lens of their own cultures
In 5th-century BC Athens, the intense bond was often viewed in light of the Greek custom of paiderasteia, which is the relationship between an older male and a younger one, usually a teenager
In Patroclus and Achilles' case, Achilles would have been the younger as Patroclus is usually seen as his elder
However, ancient Greek had no words to distinguish heterosexual and homosexual, and it was assumed that a man could both desire handsome young men and have sex with women
Many pairs of men throughout history have been compared to Achilles and Patroclus to imply a homosexual relationship
Death 

The death of Achilles, even if considered solely as it occurred in the oldest sources, is a complex one, with many different versions
In Book XXIII, the sad spirit of dead Patroclus visits Achilles just as he drifts off into slumber, requesting that his bones be placed with those of Achilles in his golden vase, a gift of his mother
In the Odyssey Book XI, Odysseus sails to the underworld and converses with the shades
One of these is Achilles, who when greeted as "blessed in life, blessed in death", responds that he would rather be a slave to the worst of masters than be king of all the dead
But Achilles then asks Odysseus of his son's exploits in the Trojan war, and Odysseus tells him of Neoptolemus' actions
In the Odyssey Book XXIV we read dead King Agamemnon's ghostly account of his death: Achilles' funeral pyre bleached bones had been mixed with those of Patroclus and put into his mother's golden vase
Also, the bones of Antilocus, who had become closer to Achilles than any other following Patroclus' death, were separately enclosed
And, the customary funeral games of a hero were performed, and a massive tomb or mound was built on the Hellespont for approaching seagoers to celebrate
Achilles was represented in the Aethiopis as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the river Danube
Another version of Achilles' death is that he fell deeply in love with one of the Trojan princesses, Polyxena
Achilles asks Priam for Polyxena's hand in marriage
Priam is willing because it would mean the end of the war and an alliance with the world's greatest warrior
Fate of Achilles' armour 

Achilles' armour was the object of a feud between Odysseus and Telamonian Ajax (Ajax the greater)
Furious, Ajax cursed Odysseus, which earned him the ire of Athena, who temporarily made Ajax so mad with grief and anguish that he began killing sheep, thinking them his comrades
After a while, when Athena lifted his madness and Ajax realized that he had actually been killing sheep, he was so ashamed that he committed suicide
Odysseus eventually gave the armour to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles
When Odysseus encounters the shade of Ajax much later in the House of Hades (Odyssey 11.543–566), Ajax is still so angry about the outcome of the competition that he refuses to speak to Odysseus
The armour they fought for was made by Hephaestus and thus much stronger and more beautiful than any armour a mortal could craft
Thetis had the gear made for Achilles because his first set was worn by Patroclus when he went to battle and taken by Hector when he killed Patroclus
The Shield of Achilles was also made by the fire god
His legendary spear was given to him by his mentor Chiron before he participated in the Trojan War
It was called the Pelian Spear, which allegedly no other man could wield
A relic claimed to be Achilles' bronze-headed spear was preserved for centuries in the temple of Athena on the acropolis of Phaselis, Lycia, a port on the Pamphylian Gulf
Achilles, Ajax and a game of petteia 

Numerous paintings on pottery have suggested a tale not mentioned in the literary traditions
At some point in the war, Achilles and Ajax were playing a board game (petteia)
They were absorbed in the game and oblivious to the surrounding battle
The Trojans attacked and reached the heroes, who were saved only by an intervention of Athena