But when they were come to the place that Achilles had appointed unto them, they set down the dead, and swiftly heaped up for him abundant store of wood.Then again swift-footed goodly Achilles took other counsel; he took his stand apart from the fire and shore off a golden lock, the rich growth whereof he had nursed for the river Spercheüs, and his heart mightily moved, he spake, with a look over the wine-dark sea: Spercheüs, to no purpose did my father Peleus vow to theethat when I had come home thither to my dear native land, I would shear my hair to thee and offer a holy hecatomb, and on the selfsame spot would sacrifice fifty rams, males without blemish, into thy waters, where is thy demesne and thy fragrant altar. So vowed that old man, but thou didst not fulfill for him his desire.Now, therefore, seeing I go not home to my dear native land, I would fain give unto the warrior Patroclus this lock to fare with him. He spake and set the lock in the hands of his dear comrade, and in them all aroused the desire of lament. And now would the light of the sun have gone down upon their weeping,had not Achilles drawn nigh to Agamemnon's side and said: Son of Atreus—for to thy words as to those of none other will the host of the Achaeans give heed— of lamenting they may verily take their fill, but for this present disperse them from the pyre, and bid them make ready their meal; for all things here we to whom the dead is nearest and dearest will take due care;and with us let the chieftains also abide.
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