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THE ENTREATY OF THE SHADE OF PATROCLUS.

Sleep'st thou, Achilles, mindless of thy friend,
Neglecting not the living but the dead?
Hasten my funeral rites, that I may pass
Through Hades's gloomy gates. Ere those be done,
The spirits and spectres of departed men
Drive me far from them, nor allow to cross
Th' abhorred river; but forlorn and sad

I wander through the wide-spread realms of night.
And give me now thy hand, whereon to weep;
For never more, when laid upon the

pyre,

Shall I return from Hades; never more,

Apart from all our comrades, shall we two,

As friends, sweet counsel take. For me stern Death,
The common lot of man, has ope'd his mouth.
Thou, too, Achilles, rival of the gods,

Art destined here beneath the walls of Troy
To meet thy doom. Yet one thing I must add
And make, if thou wilt grant it, one request :
Let not my bones be laid apart from thine,
Achilles, but together, as our youth
Was spent together in thy father's house.

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-Translation of LORD DERBY.

The preparations for the obsequies of Patroclus are speedily concluded. Agamemnon has already cut down wood for a huge funeral pyre. The corpse is borne in long procession and placed upon it. Each warrior cuts off long locks of his hair, which are laid upon the body as an offering to the gods below. Four chariot horses and two household dogs are slain upon the pyre. The twelve Trojan captives are slaughtered by Achilles with his own hand, and added to the victims. The fire is lighted and blazes all night, Achilles continually pouring on libations from a golden goblet. In the morning the embers are quenched with wine, and the bones of Patroclus are col

lected, and placed in a golden urn to await the near day when those of Achilles shall be deposited under the same mound.

The funeral games are now begun, lasting twelve days in all. There is a chariot-race, in which Diomed carries off the prize; a brutal boxing-match, in which one combatant is felled to the ground, and borne off senseless; a wrestlingmatch between Ajax the Greater and Ulysses, which is pronounced a drawn game; a foot-race, in which Ulysses is victor, Pallas tripping up the heels of Ajax the Lesser, who was ahead; a fight with spear and shield between Diomed and Ajax Telamon, the prize being the splendid armor which had belonged to Sarpedon, to be awarded to the one who drew the first blood; but the champions grew so furious that they were separated, and the prize is divided between them; and a contest in archery. The games were to have closed by a contest at hurling the heavy spear, at which Agamemnon presented himself as a contestant; but Ulysses would not hear of it, handing the prize to Agamemnon with the courteous words, "O son of Atreus, we know that thou dost surpass us all." Every morning Achilles mounted his chariot, to which was attached the body of Hector, which was thrice dragged around the mound which had been reared over the ashes of Patroclus; but notwithstanding this rough usage, the body-thanks to the care of Venus and Apollo-showed no signs of injury or decomposition. On the night after the close of the funeral rites, the aged Priam, conducted by Mercury, and attended only by a single herald, crept through the lines of the Gre

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