TFBT: Random Notes from Hour Ten

Odyssey 8:1 "Now when the child of morning, rosy-fingered Dawn, appeared, Alkinoos, the hallowed prince, and Odysseus, ransacker of cities, both rose". Third of the way through the story and Odysseus is still a ransacker of cities rather than king of one.

In Chapter Five of the Odyssey, the gods decide to send Odysseus on his way home. They assign Hermes the task of informing the shining goddess Calypso that she must release her mortal lover Odysseus.  She doesn’t take the news well and curses the gods in general for their jealousy of goddesses who take mortal lovers.  Hermes terse response is located at Od 5:145,  “Then again the messenger Argeiphontes answered her: “Even so send him forth now, and beware of the wrath of Zeus, lest haply he wax wroth and visit his anger upon thee hereafter.” Nagy in the sourcebook for The Ancient Greek Hero says of Calypso’s argument,  " For example, the hero Orion is killed off by Artemis because he became the lover of Ēōs, the goddess of the dawn (v 121–124). And the narrative of the Odyssey actually foretells a similar death for Odysseus - if he had continued to be the lover of Calypso "  Silly me!  I assumed Hermes’ was warning Calypso about the wrath of Zeus descending on here.  Just another example of the gods nothing interfering in the business of other gods, but having no qualms about killing other gods’ mortal favorites.

Some pretty lines from the Odyssey;

Od 8:105 “the wood-nymphs, daughters of Aegis-bearing Zeus, take their sport along with her, then is Leto proud at seeing her daughter stand a full head taller than the others, and eclipse the loveliest amid a whole bevy of beauties. “   

Od 6: 41 “Olympus, where, they say, is the abode of the gods that stands fast forever. Neither is it shaken by winds nor ever wet with rain, nor does snow fall upon it, but the air is outspread clear and cloudless, and over it hovers a radiant whiteness. Therein the blessed gods are glad all their days,”  

Od 4:335 “(Ino) had been since raised to the rank of a marine goddess. Seeing in what great distress Odysseus now was, she had compassion upon him, and, rising like a sea-gull from the waves, took her seat upon the raft. “My poor good man,” said she, “why is Poseidon the shaker of the earth so furiously [340] angry with you? He is giving you a great deal of trouble, but for all his bluster he will not kill you. You seem to be a sensible person, do then as I bid you; strip, leave your raft to drive before the wind, and swim”  Admittedly the divine  realm of Ino is  rescuing drowning sailors, still she seem remarkable unworried about the wrath of Poseidon. 

Od 4:355  Odysseus says of  the goddess Ino “Alas,” he said to himself in his dismay, “this is only someone or other of the gods who is luring me to ruin by advising me to quit my raft.  What’s with Odysseus constant worry constantly about being lured to his watery death  by a goddess?  He flat out accuses Calypso of the same at 5:171and deals with the Sirens attempt to beguile him at 12:36 .    It might be this compulsive liar proving the proverb, that “People with trust issues can’t be trusted.  At 10:302 he make Circe swear a great oath not to render him “a weakling and unmanned” after she proposes a romp in the hay.  He even accuses Athena of trying to beguile him on the day of his homecoming at 22:311-329.  Admittedly Hector was “lured” to his death by the same goddess at Il 22:289-306 and Anchises famously worries about being unmanned after bedding Aphrodite, but Odysseus’s worry borders on obsession.

TFBT: Random Notes on Hour 9

More random notes this time from Hour 9 of The Ancient Greek Hero course I'm taking at Harvard via edX

“honor to the Achaean name, the Achaeans will bear the glory of Orestes in song even to future generations” Odyssey 3:204  At Iliad 20:308 Posedion says, “ and now verily shall the mighty Aeneas be king among the Trojans, and his sons' sons that shall be born in days to come."  Many scholars and the Latin poet Virgil, picked up on this promise of glory (and an epic) for Aeneas in the days to come; hence “The Aeneid”. So, does the line quoted at the start of this paragraph promised a similar epic for Orestes?  Sure he got many tradegies, but a “song”?  It almost seems like self-promotion on Homer’s part as though he had another epic in him to tell.    

“who would go to bed with a sea monster if he could help it?” (Od 4:443)  I know Menelaus speak rhetorically, but the answer to his question is;

·        Phorkys the sea-god who wed and bed Ceto, the literal mother of all sea-monsters (Hesiod 270&332)

·        Typhon who bedded their daughter Echidna, the mother of all monsters (Hesiod 306) and, of course,

·        Heracles who bedded Echidna and produced three sons (Herodotus 4:8-10)

“I should not care how much I suffered before getting home, provided I could be safe when I was once there. I would rather this, than get home quickly, and then be killed in my own house as Agamemnon” Odyssey 3:233 

“Athena thought that he was just and right to have given it to herself first; she accordingly began praying heartily to Poseidon.  “O god,” she cried, “you who encircle the earth, grant the prayers of your servants that call upon you. More especially we pray you send down your grace on Nestor and on his sons; thereafter also make the rest of the Pylian people some handsome return for the goodly hecatomb they are offering you.[60] Lastly, grant Telemakhos and myself a happy issue, in respect of the matter that has brought us in our swift black ship to Pylos.” When she had thus made an end of praying, she handed the cup to dear Telemakhos” Od 3:54 Amazing Athena praying to Poseidon; oh and not using the proper format.

I am no prophet, and know very little about omens, but I speak as it is borne in upon me from the sky and assure you that he will not be away much longer; for he is a man of such resource that even though he were in chains of iron he would find some means of getting home again.“ Od 1:200-205

“Visualizing the right thing, that’s how your “noos” (thoughts) stay in the right place.” Claudia Filos

At Odyssey 8:521, just as the blind poet Demodocus is about to reveal the dastardly deeds Odysseus committed the night that Troy fell, Homer swings the story elsewhere.

TFBT: The Turning Point

You are skillful at wheeling your horses round the post...                                                                   Iliad 23: 309

Just prior to the chariot race at the funeral games honoring Patroclus, Nestor gave his son Antilochos some advice on how to win the race.  It is widely-held that the advice didn’t have much to do with winning a horse race.  I hope to demonstrate that here.

Homer, with the omniscience available to him through the Muses states that Antiochos’ “father came up to him to give him good advice of which, however, he stood in but little need.” (Il 23:304-306)   His father than says, “Zeus and Poseidon have loved you well, and have made you an excellent charioteer. I need not therefore say much by way of instruction. You are skillful at wheeling your horses round the post,”[Il 23: 306-310] So, clearly Antilochos doesn’t need any advice on chariot racing and yet here it comes for those with eyes to see and ear to hear.

His father offers him “a certain sign which cannot escape your notice.” The sign ends up being; “a stump of a dead tree-oak” or maybe a pine, or an old grave or “a turning-post in days gone by” but in this particular case it is; the mark round which the chariots will turn before returning to the beach.  It appears that there are several different signs where this advice will be useful.

Nestor then goes on to give his son, who is universally acknowledged as skillful at wheeling his horses round the post, advice on how to round the post.  Mostly stuff about not getting the left wheel too close to the post and specifically; “..urge on your right-hand horse with voice and lash, and give him a loose rein, but let the left-hand horse keep so close...”

Then the five chariots are off across the plain.  Several things occur and then “ they were doing the last part of the course on their way back towards the sea that their pace was strained to the utmost”  with no mention about how skillful Antiochus turned the post.  If his father’s advice was really about turning the post, there is not mention that Antilochos benefitted by it or how he used it.  

The strategy that we hear Antilochos use is to squeeze out Menelaus at a point in the course where water had worn the track away, “The son of Atreus was afraid and shouted out, “Antilokhos, you are driving recklessly; rein in your horses; the road is too narrow here, it will be wider soon, and you can pass me then; if you foul my chariot you may bring both of us to a mischief.” But Antilokhos plied his whip lustily” Antiochus giving his horses rein passed Agamemnon on the outside (right side) of the track, forcing Menelaus on the left to rein his horses in. 

At the finish line Achilles presents the prizes, not fairly, but justly, recognizing those who should have done better.  Anticholos objected “Achilles,” said he, “I shall take it much amiss if you do this thing; you would rob me of my prize.“  Such hot-headedness, such unreigned passion is something  that Achilles can relate to and he gives Antilochos the promised prize.   At which point Menelaus, brother to Agamemnon the leader of the army objects that Antilochos robbed him of his just prize. Antiochus reigns in his temper “And Antilokhos answered, “Forgive me; I am much younger, King Menelaos, than you are…”; mentions Menelaus’ higher status, that he is the better man, bemoans the folly of youth, their hasty tempers and poor judgement.  He begs the older man to make allowance for his youth.  Then turns over the prize; a mare.

“O Menelaos, was your heart made glad within you.”

Menealus praises the young mans behavior in the past, allows that this was a one time thing and warns him agains similar behavior in the future; “I therefore yield to your entreaty and will give up the mare to you.”

 Looks like Nestor’s advice was beneficial after all, it helped Antilochos know how to recognize the “turning point” in the race, when to give rein to his horses and passions and when to reign them both in. 

TFBT: All Because of Just One Girl, Just One.

More random notes from my reading for "The Ancient Greek Hero"

Iliad 9:637 “all because of just one girl,  just one.” Namely, Briseis, the cause of Achilles’ Wrath and the source of the Iliad’s power, just one girl, just one.  

Iliad 19:67 ” Now, however, let it be, for it is over. If we have been angry, necessity has schooled our anger. I put it from me: I dare not nurse it for ever. “  

They were holding high feast in the house of boisterous Zephyros when Iris came running up to the stone threshold of the house and stood there, but as soon as they set eyes on her they all came towards her and each of them called her to him, but Iris would not sit down. “I cannot stay,” she said, (Iliad 23: 200)  In reading this passage for “The Ancient Greek Hero” class was reminded of an observation I read somewhere once, that you can judge your host’s affection by how well you are received by his servants.  Zephryus and his brothers, the eternal servants of the gods, reacted enthusiastically to the arrival of the goddess Iris with no regard as to who had sent her.  Thetis gets a similar greeting from the “servants” in Iliad 24:100 and 18:386  

  “He eyed his fair flesh over and over to see where he could best wound it, but all was protected by the goodly armor of which Hector had spoiled Patroklos after he had slain him, save only the throat where the collar-bones divide the neck from the shoulders and this is the quickest place for the life-breath to escape.” (Iliad 22:320-325)  I think Homer elsewhere in the Iliad, this exact same point.  The collar bone is the quickest point on a armored warrior.  The other line, wherever it is suggests using a large rock to do the deed .  Good thing the Inca and Aztecs never knew Homer, or the Spanish mightn’t have done so well in the new world. 

Iliad 22:155-165 where in the time of peace before the coming of the Achaeans the wives and fair daughters of the Trojans used to wash their clothes. Past these did they flee, the one in front and the other giving chase behind him: good was the man that fled, but better far was he that followed after, and swiftly indeed did they run, for the prize was no mere beast for sacrifice or bullock’s hide, as it might be for a common foot-race, but they ran for the life of Hector. As horses in a chariot race speed round the turning-posts when they are running for some great prize - a tripod or woman - at the games in honor of some dead hero,

Strabo, Geography 8. 7. 2:"The sea was raised by an earthquake and it submerged Helike [in Akhaia], and also the temple of Poseidon Helikonios (of Helike), whom the Ionians worship even to this day, offering there the Pan-Ionian sacrifices. And, as some suppose, Homer recalls this sacrifice when he says : `but he breathed out his spirit and bellowed, as when a dragged bull bellows round the altar of the Helikonian lord.' 

He fled on in front, but the river with a loud roar came tearing after. As one who would water his garden leads a stream from some fountain over his plants, and all his ground – spade in hand he clears away the dams to free the channels, and the little stones run rolling round and round with the water as it goes merrily down the bank faster than the man can follow- even so did the river keep catching up with radiant Achilles albeit he was a fleet runner, for the gods are stronger than men. Iliad 21:253-264  I read this text and suddenly could see my friend Richard T. in ugly gray rubber boots herding the water from this family’s patch  of corn 

Achilles refers to his psyche as his life. Something to be lost. Which follows Homer’s plot where there is no afterlife to long for.  The playwrights have characters think and feel with their psyches.  Homer’s characters identify with their bodies and the playwright’s with their souls.  

Iliad 21:12-14 As locusts flying to a river before the blast of a grass fire – the flame comes on and on till at last it overtakes them and they huddle into the water.  Incredible image I can relate to from the fire fighting days of my youth

 

TFBT: Random Notes on Scrolls 11-12 of the Iliad

“Glaukos, why in Lycia do we receive especial honor as regards our place at table? Why are the choicest portions served us and our cups kept brimming, and why do men look up to us as though we were gods? Moreover we hold a large estate by the banks of the river Xanthos, fair with orchard lawns and wheat-growing land; it becomes us, therefore, to take our stand at the head of all the Lycians and bear the brunt of the fight, that one may say to another, Our princes in Lycia eat the fat of the land and drink best of wine, but they are fine men; they fight well and are ever at the front in battle. My good friend, if, when we were once out of this fight, we could escape old age and death thence forward and for ever, I should neither press forward myself  nor bid you do so, but death in ten thousand shapes hangs ever over our heads, and no man can elude him; therefore let us go forward and either win glory for ourselves, or yield it to another.” Glaukos heeded his saying, (Iliad 12:310-328)  This is probably the best description of “noblesse oblige”; the concept that with wealth and power comes obligation; that those of us still standing are obliged to give the fallen a hand up.

“As a lion fastens on the fawns of a hind and crushes them in his great jaws, robbing them of their tender life while he on his way back to his lair – the hind can do nothing for them even though she be close by, for she is in an agony of fear, and flies through the thick forest, sweating, and at her utmost speed before the mighty monster“  Iliad 11:112-119  Sad and moving. 

“It was Antimakhos who had been foremost in preventing Helen’s being restored to fair-haired Menelaos, for he was lavishly bribed by Alexandros.”  Iliad 11:125  “high-spirited Antimakhos, who once at a council of Trojans proposed that Menelaos and godlike Odysseus, who had come to you as envoys, should be killed and not allowed to return” Iliad 11:139-141  I never heard about this guy before!  Does “antimachos” mean unmanly? 

“ As when some mighty forest is all ablaze – the eddying gusts whirl fire in all directions till the thickets shrivel and are consumed before the blast of the flame” Iliad 11:155  Good writing can take you to that moment;  that place in our past.  When I read the above soonly I was back there.  In my Homer induced vision; it was early summer in the Unita Mountains of Northern Utah, not scorching hot yet.  The eddying breeze moved the low fire across the long grass and fallen slash into the small thicket of winter-killed ponderosa pine thick with long orange needles.  A skid trail would stop the spread of the flames.  I knew from experience that three of us could handle it.  If it jumped the skid trail, the next thicket was older, taller and less likely to catch fire, besides the logging road was just beyond.  Then faded my vision.  All that triggered by a few lines of the first best thing; the Iliad.

TFBT: Robert Graves’ Tanist

 

“another young man, his (the king’s) twin or supposed twin – a convenient ancient Irish term is ‘tanist’ – then became the Queen’s lover, to be duly scarified at mid-winter and as a reward, reincarnated in an oracular serpent”  Robert Graves

Robert Graves wrote amongst many other things the encyclopedic “The Greek Myths”.  This massive and ambitious work catalogued all the conflicting accounts of fabled Ancient Greece and sorted them into very readable chapters named for an epic or mythological character.  After a very enjoyable telling of tales there would be voluminous footnotes interpreting the tales followed by references used.  A premise to his interpretation is that prior to the arrival of the Indo-Europeans to the lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea there was a rather universal indigenous society.  Graves envisioned a matriarchal society both matrilineal and matrilocal.

The “king” came to power by wedding a beautiful prince.  Think of all those traveling heroes throughout myth and legend who slay some beast and marry to the local princess.¹  The “king” is always from elsewhere because the local community intends to kill him and fertilize the field with this blood.  Think of Demeter and Iasion wedded in a thrice-plowed  field where soon after he was slain.  This is Frazier’s “sacrificial king”.  This is the founding father in Greek myth that travels to a distant land and marries the eponymous nymph.  In time he will be the beast slain by the newer arriving hero or the beast that slays the newly arrived hero.  This newly arrived hero slain by the beast; the man sacrificed in place of the king, Graves call the Tanist.  Adonis for examples was killed by a boar or Ares disguised as a boar.   The Boar with his crescent-shaped tusks and lunar aspect, this Tanist came to represent came to represent the matriarchal need to overthrow Indo-European dominance, as the darker aspects of Gaia time and time again tried to over throw heavenly Zeus. 

Graves further supposes that sometimes this fight to the death between the sacrificial king and his tanist became a mock-battle, a wrestling match, a chariot race and that in fact it was “the surrogate boy-king, or interrex,” who died, and whose blood was used for the sprinkling ceremony.   Oenomaus (p 31) and Evenus (p246) slew many of the local princess’ suitors in a chariot race.  Hippolytus lost his race with the local king (p356).  Diomedes and Glaucus seemed to have dispensed with the race and just thrown their “tanists” to the horses.

There are a surprising large number of “twins” in Greek mythology.² In Graves theory they twins present the sacred king and his tanist.  To avoid death and conflict one option is reign for alternate years; like Polyneices and Eteocles attempted to do at Thebes.  “The yoking of a lion and a wild boar to the same chariot is the theme of a Theban myth, where the original meaning has been equally obscured.” The Lion after the Sphinx was the emblem of Thebes’ king and boar the emblem of his tanist.  “and the oracle seems to have proposed a peaceful settlement of the traditional rivalry between the sacred king and his tanist. “

And sometimes   the sacred king   reigned, with a tanist; like in the dual kingship of Sparta. (Amphion/Zethus p256, Procles/Eurysthenes p206)  In order to allow the sacred king precedence over his tanist, he was usually described as the son of a god or goddess.  “the tanist was not regarded as immortal, nor granted the same posthumous status as his twin. Theseus must originally have had a twin, since his mother lay with both a god and a mortal on the same night. .. He was  allowed an honorary twin, Peirithous who, being mortal, could not escape from Tartarus.  Patroclus… may have once been… Achilles’s twin” and tanist.

In summary Graves presupposes the existence in prehistoric times of a sacred role in society called the Tanist; his man could be the sacrificial king’s heir or victim, best friend or eternal foe and  his Other .  

 ______________________________________________________________

1.      Theseus/Minotaur/Adriane, Jason/Colchian dragon/Medea, Perseus/sea monster/Andromache, Bellephron/Chimera/Philonoe, Orion/wild beasts/Merope, Oedipus/Sphinx/Jocasta references from Robert Graves “The Greek Myths” 1988, Volume 1 unless otherwise stated.

2.      Aeolus/Boeotus p159, Butes/Erechtcheus p168, Calais/Zetes p171, Pelias/Neleus p221, Proteus/Acrisius p237, Eteocles/Polynieces v2 p15, Agenor/Belus p200, Aegyptus/Danaus p200, Autolycus/Philammon p216, Castor/Polydeuces p246, Idas/Lynceus p246, Heracles/Iphicles p250, Amphion/Zethus p256, Agamedes/Trophonius p288.  All references from Robert Graves “The Greek Myths” 1988, Volume 1 unless otherwise stated.

TFBT: Random Notes on "Iliad's Homer" and the First Four Scrolls

“This deep intimacy with the Poet is his revelation to us; before our eyes we must behold his world rise up from the deep- and take on form.” D. J. Snider http://www.jstor.org/stable/25667963 

Iliad 1:525  “See, I incline my head that you believe me. This is the most solemn act that I can give to any god. I never retract my word, or deceive, or fail to do what I say, when I have nodded my head.” As he spoke the son of Kronos bowed his dark brows, and the ambrosial locks swayed…”  Ain’t this a great phrase! 

Iliad 2:674 “Nireus, who was the handsomest man that came up under Ilion of all the Danaans after the perfect son of Peleus”  Nireus, the son of King Charopus and Aglaea, was king of the island Syme  and one of the Achaean leaders in the Trojan War. Nireus was among the suitors of Helen and commanded three ships. In the military conflict with the Mysian king Telephus, which occurred on the way to Troy, Nireus killed Telephus' wife Hiera, Nireus did not excel in physical strength  and was eventually killed by either Eurypylus, son of Telephus, or Aeneas. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nireus) 

Iliad 4:285 “No need,” he cried, “to give orders to such leaders of the bronze-armored Argives as you are, for of your own selves you spur your men on to fight with might and main. Would, by father Zeus, Athena, and Apollo that all were so minded as you are,”  How ironic! Praying to Apollo.  Sadder when the Trojan women were taking gifts to the temple of the Ilium hating Athena.

“the broad waters of the river Axios,(Iliad 2:850) the fairest that flow upon the earth.  It appears to drain the major portion of Macedonia.  One critic called “brown-colored”, but most of the current photos of the Axios (Vardar) show a deep meandering river flowing through broad green plains beneath green hills.   

Men call it Batieia (Thorn Hill), but the gods know that it is the tomb [sēma] of lithe dancing Myrrhine. Iliad 2:815  The scholiast and the commentary of Eustatius on the passage tell that this Myrina was an Amazon, the daughter of Teucer and the wife of Dardanus, and that from her the city Myrina in Aeolis was said to have been named.   

4: 255 Agamemnon was glad when he saw him, and spoke to him fairly. “Idomeneus,” said he, “I treat you with greater distinction than I do any others of the Achaeans, whether in war or in other things, or at table. When the princes[260] are mixing my choicest wines in the mixing-bowls, they have each of them a fixed allowance, but your cup is kept always full like my own, that you may drink whenever you are minded.  I never noticed before they were such good pals.  Of course, Agamemnon’s mother Aerope was a cousin to Idomeneus and his buddy Sthenelus.  And the funeral for Aeropes’ father was the reason for Menealus departure to Crete when Prince Paris was visiting, all the rest is history.

 

TFBT: Tears of Blood, Tears of the Deep

“Alas, that it should be the lot of Sarpedon, whom I love so dearly as to perish at the hands of Patroclus.” Iliad 16:430

A bunch of us participate in a free online course from Harvard, thanks to edX;  “The Ancient Greek Hero”  During classroom discussion about the laments of the goddess Thetis for her doomed mortal-son Achilles,  one participant suggested that Zeus’ debate over the death of his mortal son Sarpedon could be a mini-lament.  So, below I attempt to compare Zeus’ laments for Sarpedon to Thetis’ for Achilles.

1.     At Iliad 16:430 Zeus looks down on the battle before Troy with pity for his doomed son and speaks the words above.  Thetis has a similar bout of pity of her son at Iliad 18:51 

2.     Zeus says “I am in two minds whether to catch him up out of the fight and set him down safe and sound in the fertile district of Lycia or let him now fall” (16:435)  In comparison at Iliad 9:499-505 Thetis is reported actually discussing with Achilles the two ways his fate could turn.  There is no indication that Thetis will be unable to alter Achilles Fates.  As Laura M Slatkin argues in “The Power of Thetis” ; Thetis seems to occupy a unique position in the hierarchy of the Greek gods.  Colluding and conspiring Olympians can thwart the will of Zeus (Iliad 1:393) but Thetis in turn overthrew their will.  If the will of the collective Olympians is greater than Zeus and Thetis’ greater than theirs it follows that Thetis’ will is great than Zeus.  And note that on both occasions when Thetis wishes to change the course of events there is not physical attack on her person nor harsh words about her, even behind her back. (Iliad 1:393, 496).  Thetis can get her way.  Unlike Sarpedon, Achilles has a choice of destinies.

3.     At 16:440 “O most dread son of Cronus, what are you saying?” questions his sister and wife Hera.   Another classmate references the Muses at Achilles funeral being there “for the record”.  An interesting phrase here, because Hera very much seems to being in the Sarpedon conversation “for the record”; representing the status quo and the Olympic community’s expectations.  In contrast, although no one like Hera or the Erinnyes question Thetis effort to insure her son outlives his destiny; goddesses of significance attend his funeral in a formal capacity; the muses insuring his chosen destiny; unwilting glory and endless fame. (Odyssey 24:57-97) 

4.     At 16:459 “The sire of gods and men assented (to Sarpedon’s death) but he shed a rain of blood up on the earth.”  Zeus assented to Sarpedon’s death; allowed his life to end, something Thetis never did.  Both deities shed tears before their sons’ actual death (Iliad 18:94 and 1:413 respectively). 

5.      Following the above quote about Zeus’ nod;  “nor did Zeus turn his keen eyes away from one moment from the fight but kept looking at it all the time for he was settling how best to slay Patroclus.”  Zeus watches and plots revenge, Thetis does neither. 

6.      At 16:665-684 Zeus gives direction for his son’s funeral with no indication he attended the event.  Whereas, Thetis came forth from the sea with the immortal sea-nymphs; the daughters of Nereus the old man of the sea wailing piteously.  She and her sisters clothed Achilles in ambrosial robes.  For seventeen days and nights Thetis immortal gods and mortal men in lament.  After the cremation upon a pyre Thetis provided “ a two-handled, golden urn,” and gave instructions for the burial of Achilles, Patroclus and Antilochus, in a “great and goodly tomb,” And convinced the gods to provide the gifts for the funeral games.  (Odyssey 24:57-97) 

7.     Per Zeus’ instruction Sleep and Death fly Sarpedon’s body off to Lycia.  In some traditions Thetis snatched Achilles from the pyre and flies him off to the Isle of Leuce.  (Aethiopis) 

So, in summary both god and goddess pity their doomed offspring, consider alternative fates for them, are visited by witnesses to that fate, weep, make funeral arrangements and see that they are snatched away from this world at the end.