Now with a kindly intent he addressed them and spake to them saying :
' Argives, stay ! I beseech you to fly not, princely Achaeans !
Lo, from the depths of the sea with her nymphs immortal his mother
Cometh to look on the face of her son who is dead, and to mourn him.'
So was the panic allayed of the high-souled sons of Achaea.
Then stood Nereus' daughters, the ancient god of the ocean.
Round thee, and bitterly wailing in raiment ambrosial wrapped thee.
Also the Muses, the Nine, made answer the one to the other,
Chanting with beautiful voices the dirge, while none of the Argives
Tearless remained, so mightily moved them the song of the Muses.
Seven and tenjong nights, and by day, we incessantly mourned thee
Wailing and weeping — immortals together with men that be mortal.
Then on the eighteenth day to the flames thou wast given, and round thee
Fatlings many of sheep and of crook-horned cattle we slaughtered.
So thou wast burnt in the raiment divine and in many an unguent.
Yea and in honey ; and many a warrior prince of Achaea
Marching in armour encircled the pyre as thy body was burning.
Fighters on foot and on cars, and great was the din and the clangour.
Now when thy body at last was consumed in the flame ot Hephaestus,
Early the morrow thy bones' white ashes we gathered, Achilles.
These in unwatered wine and in unguent we laid ; and thy mother
Brought us an urn twy-handled and golden, that god Dionysus
Gave her— the work, as she said, of the far-famed craftsman Hephaestus.
