"Happy [olbios] son
of Peleus," answered the ghost [psukhê] of
Agamemnon, "for having died at Troy far from Argos, while the bravest
of the Trojans and the Achaeans fell round you fighting for your
body. There you lay in the whirling clouds of dust, all huge and
hugely, heedless now of your chivalry. We fought the whole of the
livelong day, nor should we ever have left off if Zeus had not sent a
gale to stay us. Then, when we had borne you to the ships out of the
fray, we laid you on your bed and cleansed your fair skin with warm
water and with ointments. The Danaans tore their hair and wept
bitterly round about you. Your mother, when she heard, came with her
immortal nymphs from out of the sea, and the sound of a great wailing
went forth over the waters so that the Achaeans quaked for fear. They
would have fled panic-stricken to their ships had not wise old Nestor
whose counsel was ever truest checked them saying, ‘Hold,
Argives, flee not sons of the Achaeans, this is his mother coming
from the sea with her immortal nymphs to view the body of her
son.’
"Thus he spoke, and the Achaeans
feared no more. The daughters of the old man of the sea stood round
you weeping bitterly, and clothed you in immortal raiment. The nine
muses also came and lifted up their sweet voices in lament - calling
and answering one another; there was not an Argive but wept for pity
of the dirge they chanted. Days and nights seven and ten we mourned
you, mortals and immortals, but on the eighteenth day we gave you to
the flames, and many a fat sheep with many an ox did we slay in
sacrifice around you. You were burnt in raiment of the gods, with
rich resins and with honey, while heroes, horse and foot, clashed
their armor round the pile as you were burning, with the tramp as of
a great multitude. But when the flames of heaven had done their work,
we gathered your white bones at daybreak and laid them in ointments
and in pure wine. Your mother brought us a golden vase to hold them -
gift of Bacchus, and work of Hephaistos himself; in this we mingled
your bleached bones with those of Patroklos who had gone before you,
and separate we enclosed also those of Antilokhos, who had been
closer to you than any other of your comrades now that Patroklos was
no more.
"Over these the host of the
Argives built a noble tomb, on a point jutting out over the open
Hellespont, that it might be seen from far out upon the sea by those
now living and by them that shall be born hereafter. Your mother
begged prizes from the gods, and offered them to be contended for
[agôn] by the noblest of the Achaeans. You must
have been present at the funeral of many a hero, when the young men
gird themselves and make ready to contend for prizes on the death of
some great chieftain, but you never saw such prizes as silver-footed
Thetis offered in your honor; for the gods loved you well. Thus even
in death your kleos, Achilles, has not been lost, and your
name lives evermore among all humankind. But as for me, what solace
had I when the days of my fighting were done? For Zeus willed my
destruction on my return [nostos], by the hands of
Aigisthos and those of my wicked wife."
Thus did they converse, and
presently Hermes came up to them with the ghosts of the suitors who
had been killed by Odysseus. The ghosts [psukhai] of
Agamemnon and Achilles were astonished at seeing them, and went up to
them at once. The ghost [psukhê] of Agamemnon
recognized Amphimedon son of Melaneus, who lived in Ithaca and had
been his host, so it began to talk to him.
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