Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/52

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22 HOMER

Of glorious Hector. When they all had come Together, first they quenched the funeral fires, AVherever they had spread, with dark-red wine, And then his brothers and companions searched For the white bones. In sorrow and in tears loio

That streaming stained their cheeks, they gathered

them, And placed them in a golden urn. O'er this They drew a covering of soft purple robes, And laid it in a hollow grave, and piled Fragments of rock above it, many and huge. lois

In haste they reared the tomb, with sentries set On every side, lest all too soon the Greeks Should come in armor to renew the war. When now the tomb was built, the multitude Returned, and in the halls where Priam dwelt, 1020 Nursling of Jove, were feasted royally. Such was the mighty Hector's burial rite.

ODYSSEUS IN THE CAVE OF POLYPHEMUS

The Ninth Book of the Odyssey ; Worsley's translation.

Odysseus (Ulysses) here begins the story of his wanderings and adventures on his return from Troy. This story is called the " Apologue of Alcinous," being told to Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, a people who dwelt in fairyland on an island which the later Greeks identified with Corfu. On the night following the relation of this story, Odysseus, after ten years at the siege of Troy and ten years of wanderings, is carried by the Phaeacians to Ithaca, his home.

Then said Odysseus : Thrice-renowned king, Sweet is it minstrelsies like these to hear, Framed by a bard who like the gods can sing. Find me a joy to human heart more dear Than is a people's gladness, when good cheer 5