men to bring wood; and for this a brave man was roused, Meriones, the servant of valor-loving Idomeneus. And they went, holding in their hands wood-lopping axes and well-twisted ropes; and before them went the mules. They passed over many ascents,[1] descents, and straightways and crossways. But when they reached the forests of many-rilled Ida, hastening, they cut down the towering oaks with the keen-edged brass. These greatly resounding, fell; and the Greeks then splitting them, tied [them] upon the mules, but they pained the ground with their hoofs, eager to reach the plain through the close thickets. But all the wood-cutters carried trunks of trees, for so Meriones, the servant of valor-loving Idomeneus, ordered; and afterward threw them in order upon the shore, where Achilles designed a mighty tomb for Patroclus, and for himself.
But when they had thrown on all sides immense quantities of wood, remaining there in a body, they sat down; but Achilles immediately ordered the warlike Myrmidons to gird on the brass, and to yoke each his horses to his chariot; but they arose, and were arrayed in their armor. And both the combatants and the charioteers ascended their chariots; the cavalry indeed first, but a cloud of infantry followed after in myriads; and in the midst of his companions bore Patroclus. They covered all the dead body over with hair, which, cutting off,[2] they threw upon it; but noble Achilles held his head behind, grieving, for he was sending a blameless companion to Hades.
But they, when they reached the place where Achilles
- ↑ A most remarkable and beautiful example of the appropriation of sound to sense. Pope has admirably imitated the original by the following translation:
"O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks, they go."
Cowper less successfully:
"They measured hill and dale,
Right onward now, and now circuitous."Cf. Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 948:
"So eagerly the fiend
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare,
With head, hands, wings, or feet pursues his way,
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies." - ↑ So in Senec. Hippol. 1176: "Placemus umbras, capitis exuvias cape, laceræque frontis accipe abscissam comam." The custom is learnedly illustrated by Bernart on Stat. Theb. vi. 195; Lomeier de Lustrat. § xxv.
