One of the most lyrical chapters in the Iliad, in chapter 18, Achilles grieves over the death of Patroclus and steels himself to return to battle.  His loving mother, the goddess Thetis, commissions the god Hephaestus to fashion him new, resplendent armor for the battle he is about to wage and Homer paints a picture of the preparations in some of the most amazingly vivid passages ever written.