Alexandros - June 23, 323 B.C.
"At his words the brave Achaens checked their flight. The daughters of the Old Man of the Sea stood around your corpse lamenting bitterly. They wrapped your body in an imperishable shroud. And the nine Muses chanted your dirge, respondng each to each in their sweet voices. There was not a single Argive to be seen without tears in his eyes, so moving was the clear song of the Muse. Immortals gods and mortal men, we mourned you, seventeen days and nights, and on the eighteenth we delivered you to the flames, sacrificing herds of fatted sheet and spiral-horned cattle round you. You were burnt clothed as a god, drowned in unguents and sweet honey, and a host of Achaean heroes streamed past your pyre as you burned, warriors and charioteers, making a vast noise. And as dawn, Achilles, when Hephaestus' fires had eaten you, we gathered up your whitened ash and bone, and steeped them in oil and unmixed wine. Your mother gave us a gold two-handled urn, saying it was the gift of Dionysus, and crafted by far-famed Hephaestus himself. There your ashes lie, my glorious Achille, mixed the bones of the dead Patroclus, Menoetius' son, but separated from those of Antilochus, who next to dead Patroclus you loved most among your comrades. And on a headland thrusting into the wide Hellespont, we, the great hose of Argive spearmen, heaped a vast flawless mound above them, so it might be seen far out to sea by men who live now and those to come.
Then your mother set out beautiful prizes she had begged from the gods, in the middle of the arena, to award the best of the Achaeans. You were present yourself at the funeral games for royal heroes, when young men gird their loins and try to win the prizes, but even you would have wondered at the sight, such lovely prizes Thetis, the silver-footed goddess, set out in your honour: for you were the beloved of the gods. So your name was not lost, Achilles, in death, and you will be famous indeed forever among men."
From The Odyssey Book 24:57-96: Agamemnon's Ghost Tells of the Funeral of Achilles
(Yeah I know, technically, in Greece and the Levant it's now June 24...)
B.
Then your mother set out beautiful prizes she had begged from the gods, in the middle of the arena, to award the best of the Achaeans. You were present yourself at the funeral games for royal heroes, when young men gird their loins and try to win the prizes, but even you would have wondered at the sight, such lovely prizes Thetis, the silver-footed goddess, set out in your honour: for you were the beloved of the gods. So your name was not lost, Achilles, in death, and you will be famous indeed forever among men."
From The Odyssey Book 24:57-96: Agamemnon's Ghost Tells of the Funeral of Achilles
(Yeah I know, technically, in Greece and the Levant it's now June 24...)
B.