Like him in all things—stature, beautiful eyes, And voice, and garments which he wore in life. Beside his head the vision stood and spake:—
“Achilles, sleepest thou, forgetting me? Never of me unmindful in my life, Thou dost neglect me dead. O, bury me Quickly, and give me entrance through the gates Of Hades; for the souls, the forms of those Who live no more, repulse me, suffering not That I should join their company beyond The river, and I now must wander round The spacious portals of the House of Death. Give me thy hand, I pray; for never more Shall I return to earth when once the fire Shall have consumed me. Never shall we take Counsel together, living, as we sit Apart from our companions; the hard fate Appointed me at birth hath drawn me down. Thou too, O godlike man, wilt fall beneath The ramparts of the noble sons of Troy. Yet this I ask, and if thou wilt obey, This I command thee—not to let my bones Be laid apart from thine. As we were reared Under thy roof together, from the time When first Menoetius brought thee, yet a boy, From Opus, where I caused a sorrowful death;— For by my hand, when wrangling at the dice, Another boy, son of Amphidamas, Was slain without design—and Peleus made His halls my home, and reared me tenderly, And made me thy companion;—so at last May one receptacle, the golden vase Given by thy gracious mother, hold our bones.”
The swift Achilles answered: “O most loved And honored, wherefore art thou come, and why Dost thou command me thus? I shall fulfil Obediently thy wish; yet draw thou near, And let us give at least a brief embrace, And so indulge our grief.” He said, and stretched His longing arms to clasp the shade. In vain; Away like smoke it went, with gibbering cry, Down to the earth. Achilles sprang upright, Astonished, clapped his hands, and sadly said:—
“Surely there dwell within the realm below Both soul and form, though bodiless. All night Hath stood the spirit of my hapless friend Patroclus near me, sad and sorrowful, And asking many duties at my hands, A marvellous semblance of the living man.”