Achilles in the river

The Trojans, broken by Achilles, run for the river Scamander to cross it back toward the city. Achilles drives them into the water and kills them in it. He kills so many men in the river that bodies begin to clog the channel and the water turns red. He pulls out a young son of Priam — Lycaon, captured before, ransomed once already — and kills him without mercy, throwing him into the water for the fish.

The river-god rises out of the water. Enough, he tells Achilles. No more corpses in my channel. Achilles refuses. The river attacks him bodily — a wave catching the shield, water rising over his head, currents pulling him down. Achilles nearly drowns. He calls on Zeus; Hera, watching, sees the danger and dispatches her son Hephaestus to help. Hephaestus comes down from Olympus and sets fire to the plain, then to the riverbanks, then to the river itself. The water boils. Fish die. The river-god, scorched, surrenders.

Meanwhile, in the air above, the Olympians have begun their own brawl. Athena knocks Ares down with a stone. Hera boxes Artemis on the ears, scattering her arrows. Hermes wisely declines to fight Leto. Apollo refuses to fight Poseidon out of family piety. The whole sequence is played for an oddly farcical tone — the Olympians, deadly to mortals, are not very serious in fighting each other. Below them Achilles continues toward the walls of Troy. The Trojans inside the city see him coming. Priam orders the gates opened to let in the survivors and shut again before Achilles can follow. Apollo, watching, takes the form of a Trojan to lure Achilles away from the gates so the Trojans can get inside.