Page 454 - the-iliad

BOOK XXIII

HUS did they make their moan throughout the city,
Twhile the Achaeans when they reached the Hellespont
went back every man to his own ship. But Achilles would
not let the Myrmidons go, and spoke to his brave comrades
saying, ‘Myrmidons, famed horsemen and my own trusted
friends, not yet, forsooth, let us unyoke, but with horse and
chariot draw near to the body and mourn Patroclus, in due
honour to the dead. When we have had full comfort of lam-
entation we will unyoke our horses and take supper all of
us here.’
On this they all joined in a cry of wailing and Achilles
led them in their lament. Thrice did they drive their chari-
ots all sorrowing round the body, and Thetis stirred within
them a still deeper yearning. The sands of the seashore and
the men’s armour were wet with their weeping, so great a
minister of fear was he whom they had lost. Chief in all
their mourning was the son of Peleus: he laid his blood-
stained hand on the breast of his friend. ‘Fare well,’ he cried,
‘Patroclus, even in the house of Hades. I will now do all that
I erewhile promised you; I will drag Hector hither and let
dogs devour him raw; twelve noble sons of Trojans will I
also slay before your pyre to avenge you.’
As he spoke he treated the body of noble Hector with
contumely, laying it at full length in the dust beside the bier