ions around the pile; and immediately upraised a
mound of earth; and, heaping up the tomb, returned. But Achilles
detained the people there, and made the wide assembly sit down; but from
the ships he brought forth prizes, goblets, tripods, horses, mules, and
sturdy heads of oxen, and slender-waisted women, and hoary[743] iron.
First he staked as prizes for swift-footed steeds, a woman to be borne
away, faultless, skilled in works, as well as a handled tripod of
two-and-twenty measures, for the first; but for the second he staked a
mare six years old, unbroken, pregnant with a young mule; for the third
he staked a fireless tripod, beautiful, containing four measures, yet
quite untarnished;[744] for the fourth he staked two talents of gold;
and for the fifth he staked a double vessel, untouched by the fire.
Erect he stood, and spoke this speech to the Greeks:

[Footnote 741: Ernesti considers that [Greek: toion] is here
added to indicate _magnitude_, and Heyne accordingly renders it:
"magnitudine fere hac," the speaker being supposed to use a
gesture while thus speaking.]

[Footnote 742: See Buttm. Lexil. pp. 236--9.]

[Footnote 743: "Ernesti conceives that the colour is here
maintained to express, not merely the _shining aspect_, but the
newness of the metal; as [Greek: lenkon] in 268. This is
ingenious; but why not receive it as expressive of colour, and
borrowed from that to which the metal itself supplies a
well-known epithet, viz., the hair of age?"--Kennedy.]

[Footnote 744: [Greek: Autos] here designates "_that which is
original, unchanged_, in opposition to common changes, [Greek:
lenkon eth' autos], still in _that_ its original state,
completely unblackened with fire; and [Greek: o]. 413; of the
body of Hector, [Greek: all' ete keinos keitai. Autos], in _that_
state in which he was before, still free from
corruption."--Buttm. Lexil. p. 173.]

"O son of Atreus, and ye other well-greaved Greeks, these prizes lie in
the circus, awaiting the charioteers. If now, indeed, in honour of
another, we Grecians were contending, then truly would I, receiving,
bear the first [prizes] to my tent. For ye know how much my steeds
surpass in excellence; for they are both immortal, and Neptune gave them
to my father Peleus, who, again, delivered them to me. But nevertheless
I and my solid-hoofed steeds will remain apart [from the contest];
because they have lost the excelle