Page:The Story of the Iliad.djvu/274

234 and then let us who are left eat and drink, that we may fight with better heart."

Then did Ulysses go to the tent of the King; and they brought thence the gifts, seven tripods, and twenty caldrons, and twelve horses, and seven women, skilled workers with the needle, and the fair Briseïs the eighth. And before them came Ulysses, bearing the talents of gold, full weight of the balance. These the Myrmidons took to the tent of Achilles. But when Briseïs saw Patroclus, she beat her breast and her fair face and neck, and wailed aloud, for he had been gentle and good, she said. And all the women wailed with her, thinking each of her own sorrows. Then the chiefs would have Achilles feast with them; but he hearkened not, for he would neither eat nor drink till he had had vengeance for the dead. And he spake, saying: "Often, Patroclus, hast thou ordered the feast when we were hastening to the war. And now thou liest slain, and for grief for thee I cannot eat nor drink. For greater sorrow could not have come to me, not though Peleus himself were dead, or my young son Neoptolemus. Often