Robert C. Abbott, Jr.

At the end of the Nineteenth Book of the Iliad, Achilles prepares himself to return to the battlefield and avenge the death of his friend, Patroclus. He puts on the divinely wrought armor of Hephaestus, mounts the chariot behind his two immortal horses, and calls on them in a terrible voice:

Xanthos, Balios, Bay and Dapple, famed sons of Podarge,

take care to bring in another way your charioteer back

to the company of the Danaäns, when we give over fighting,

not leave him to lie fallen there, as you did to Patroklos.[1]

(XIX.400-403)

As if to countermand this insult, the goddess Hera then gives one of the horses a prodigious, unheard of gift: the power to speak and reply to Achilles. Xanthos claims he and his brother, Balios, were not to blame for the death of Patroclus, and though they will bring Achilles safely home, his death is not far off. After he is finished speaking, the Furies take back Xanthos’ voice as quickly as it was given. Achilles is deeply shaken by the ominous speech, but drives the chariot on.