Then King Priam spoke to them saying,
"Bring wood, O Trojans, to the city,
and fear no cunning ambush of the Argives,
for Achilles when he dismissed me from the ships gave me his word
that they should not attack us until the morning of the twelfth day."

Forthwith they yoked their oxen and mules and gathered together before the city.
Nine days long did they bring in great heaps wood,
and on the morning of the tenth day with many tears they took trave Hector forth,
laid his dead body upon the summit of the pile, and set the fire thereto.

Then when the child of morning rosy-fingered dawn appeared on the eleventh day,
the people again assembled, round the pyre of mighty Hector.

When they were got together, they first quenched the fire with wine wherever it was burning,
and then his brothers and comrades with many a bitter tear gathered his white bones,
wrapped them in soft robes of purple, and laid them in a golden urn,
which they placed in a grave and covered over with large stones set close together.

 

 

BOOK XXIV
THE ILIAD
HOMER