ulk, and beautiful eyes, and his voice;
and like garments also were around his body; and he stood over his head,
and addressed him:

"Sleepest thou, O Achilles, and art thou forgetful of me? Thou didst not
indeed neglect me when alive, but [now that I am] dead. Bury me, that I
may as soon as possible pass the gates of Hades. The spirits, the images
of the deceased,[726] drive me far away, nor by any means permit me to
be mingled with them beyond the river; but thus I do wander round the
ample-gated dwelling of Hades. But give me thy hand,[727] I beseech
thee, for I shall not again return from Hades after thou hast made me a
partaker of the fire. For by no means shall we, being alive, sitting
apart from our dear companions, deliberate counsels; but the hateful
fate which befel me when born, has snatched me away. And to thyself
also, O godlike Achilles, thy fate is to perish beneath the wall of the
noble Trojans. But another thing I bid, and will command, O Achilles, if
thou wilt obey, not to lay my bones apart from thine; but as we were
nurtured together in thy palaces, when Menoetius led me from Opus, a
little boy, to thy home, on account of a melancholy homicide, on that
day when, imprudent, I slew the son of Amphidamas, not wishing it,
enraged about the dice:[728] then Peleus received me in his abode,
carefully reared me, and named me thy attendant. So may the same tomb
contain our bones, the golden vase which thy venerable mother gave
thee."

[Footnote 725: On the epithet [Greek: nedymos], cf. Buttm. p.
414, sqq.]

[Footnote 726: Buttm. Lexil. p. 372, in a very interesting
discussion, regards [Greek: kamontes] as an euphemism, "by which
the dead, whom we consider as still acting and feeling, and
consequently as the objects of our kind offices, of which they
are conscious, are represented as still living in another state,
but deprived of their earthly powers."]

[Footnote 727: Virg. AEn. vi. 370: "Da dextram misero."]

[Footnote 728: See the Quaint remarks of Jeremy Taylor, Holy
Living, p. 224, ed. Bohn.]

But him swift-footed Achilles, answering, addressed:

"Why, O venerable friend, hast thou come to me, and commandest each of
these things to me? Yet will I readily accomplish all these things for
thee, and obey as thou commandest. But stand nearer to me, that
embracing each other even for a little while, we may indulge in sad
lamentation."

Thus then having spoken, he stre