ANTILOCHUS  , in

Greek legend, son of Nestor, king of Pylos . One of the suitors of Helen, he accompanied his father to the Trojan War . He was distinguished for his beauty, swiftness of foot, and skill as a charioteer; though the youngest among the Greek princes, he commanded the Pylians in the war, and performed many deeds of valour . He was a favourite of the gods, and an intimate friend of Achilles, to whom he was commissioned to announce the death of Patroclus . When his father was attacked by Memnon, he saved his life at the sacrifice of his own (Pindar, Pyth. vi . 28), thus fulfilling an oracle which had bidden him " beware of an Ethiopian." His death was avenged by Achilles . According to other accounts, he was slain by Hector (Hyginus, Fab . 113), or by Paris in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo together with Achilles (Dares Phrygius 34) . His ashes, with those of Achilles and Patroclus, were deposited in a mound on the promontory of Sigeum, where the inhabitants of Ilium offered sacrifice to the dead heroes (Odyssey, xxiv . 72; Strabo xiii. p . 596) . In the Odyssey (xi .

468) the three

friends are represented as united in the underworld and walking together in the fields of asphodel; according to Pausanias (iii . 19) they dwell together in the island of Leuke .