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422 pointed out to them, laid him down; and immediately heaped on abundant wood for him. Then again swift-footed Achilles remembered another thing. Standing apart from the pile, he cut off his yellow hair, which he had nurtured, blooming, for the river Sperchius; and, moaning, he spoke, looking upon the dark sea:

"In vain, O Sperchius, did my father Peleus vow to thee, that I, returning to my dear native land, should there cut off my hair for thee, and offer a sacred hecatomb; and besides, that I would in the same place sacrifice fifty male sheep at the fountains, where are a grove and fragrant altar to thee. Thus the old man spake, but thou hast not fulfilled his will. And now, since I return not to my dear fatherland, I will give my hair to the hero Patroclus, to be borne (with him)." Thus saying, he placed his hair in the hands of his dear companion; and excited among them all a longing for weeping. And the light of the sun had certainly set upon them, mourning, had not Achilles, standing beside, straightway addressed Agamemnon:

"O son of Atreus (for to thy words the people of the Greeks most especially hearken), it is possible to satiate one's self even with weeping; but now do thou dismiss them from the pile, and order them to prepare supper. We, to whom the corpse is chiefly a care, will labor concerning these things; but let the chiefs remain with us."

But when the king of men, Agamemnon, heard this, he immediately dispersed the people among the equal ships; but the mourners remained there, and heaped up the wood. They formed a pile a hundred feet this way and that, and laid the body upon the summit of the pile, grieving at heart.