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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
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Now read what Patroclus says in the dream about their common burial and about the intercourse that they once had with one another. For we no longer as in life shall sit Apart in sweet communion. Nay, the doom Appointed me at birth has yawned for me. And fate has destined thee, Achilles, peer Of gods, to die beneath the wall of Troy’ s Proud lords, fighting for fair-haired Helen’ s sake. More will I say to thee, pray heed it well: Let not my bones be laid apart from thine, Achilles, but that thou and I may be In common earth, I beg that I may share That golden coffer which thy mother brought To be thine own, even as we in youth Grew up together in thy home. My sire Menoetius brought me, a little lad, from home, From Opus, to your house, for sad bloodshed, That day, when, all unwitting, in childish wrath About the dice, I killed Amphidamas’ son.The knightly Peleus took me to his home And kindly reared me, naming me thy squire.So let one common coffer hide our bones. Hom. Il. 23.77
