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And when he was sleeping by the funeral pyre, as the poet says, the ghost of Patroclus stood before him, and stirred such memories and laid upon Achilles such injunctions, that one may well weep, and envy the virtue and the friendship of these men. He prophesies that Achilles too is not far from the end of life, and enjoins upon him, if it he in any wise possible, to make provision that even as they had grown up and lived together, even so when they are dead their bones may be in the same coffer.
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weeping, and recalling the pursuits which they had followed together in life, he says, Never again shall we sit together alone as in the old days, apart from our other friends, and take high counsel, feeling, I believe, that this fidelity and affection were what they would long for most. But that you may hear the sentiments of the poet in verse also, the clerk shall read to you the verses on this theme which Homer composed.
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read first the verses about the vengeance on Hector. But since, dear comrade, after thee I go Beneath the earth, I will not bury thee Till here I bring thee Hector’ s head and arms, The spoils of that proud prince who took thy life. Hom. Il. 18.333-35