Page 462 - the-iliad

who were about the son of Atreus drew near in a body, and
roused him with the noise and tramp of their coming. He
sat upright and said, ‘Son of Atreus, and all other princes
of the Achaeans, first pour red wine everywhere upon the
fire and quench it; let us then gather the bones of Patroclus
son of Menoetius, singling them out with care; they are eas-
ily found, for they lie in the middle of the pyre, while all
else, both men and horses, has been thrown in a heap and
burned at the outer edge. We will lay the bones in a golden
urn, in two layers of fat, against the time when I shall myself
go down into the house of Hades. As for the barrow, labour
not to raise a great one now, but such as is reasonable. After-
wards, let those Achaeans who may be left at the ships when
I am gone, build it both broad and high.’
Thus he spoke and they obeyed the word of the son of
Peleus. First they poured red wine upon the thick layer of
ashes and quenched the fire. With many tears they singled
out the whitened bones of their loved comrade and laid them
within a golden urn in two layers of fat: they then covered
the urn with a linen cloth and took it inside the tent. They
marked off the circle where the barrow should be, made a
foundation for it about the pyre, and forthwith heaped up
the earth. When they had thus raised a mound they were
going away, but Achilles stayed the people and made them
sit in assembly. He brought prizes from the ships—caul-
drons, tripods, horses and mules, noble oxen, women with
fair girdles, and swart iron.
The first prize he offered was for the chariot races—a
woman skilled in all useful arts, and a three-legged caul-

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