Iliad by Homer - Join iZDOT

Homer’s Iliad
them down in a line upon the seashore at the place where Achilles
would make a mighty monument for Patroclus and for himself.
When they had thrown down their great logs of wood over the
whole ground, they stayed all of them where they were, but
Achilles ordered his brave Myrmidons to gird on their armour, and
to yoke each man his horses; they therefore rose, girded on their
armour and mounted each his chariot- they and their charioteers
with them. The chariots went before, and they that were on foot
followed as a cloud in their tens of thousands after. In the midst of
them his comrades bore Patroclus and covered him with the locks
of their hair which they cut off and threw upon his body. Last came
Achilles with his head bowed for sorrow, so noble a comrade was
he taking to the house of Hades.
When they came to the place of which Achilles had told them they
laid the body down and built up the wood. Achilles then
bethought him of another matter. He went a space away from the
pyre, and cut off the yellow lock which he had let grow for the river
Spercheius. He looked all sorrowfully out upon the dark sea, and
said, “Spercheius, in vain did my father Peleus vow to you that
when I returned home to my loved native land I should cut off this
lock and offer you a holy hecatomb; fifty she-goats was I to sacrifice
to you there at your springs, where is your grove and your altar
fragrant with burnt-offerings. Thus did my father vow, but you
have not fulfilled his prayer; now, therefore, that I shall see my
home no more, I give this lock as a keepsake to the hero Patroclus.”
As he spoke he placed the lock in the hands of his dear comrade,
and all who stood by were filled with yearning and lamentation.
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