While Troy made its moan, the Achaeans reached the Hellespont and went each to his ship. Achilles would not let the Myrmidons unyoke. He told his trusted horsemen to draw near the body with horse and chariot and mourn Patroclus in due honor; afterward they would unyoke and take supper.
They joined in a cry of wailing, and Achilles led them. Three times they drove their chariots sorrowing around the body, and Thetis stirred a deeper yearning in them. Sand and armor were wet with weeping for the minister of fear they had lost.
Achilles laid his bloodstained hand on his friend's breast and said farewell even in the house of Hades. He had fulfilled what he promised: Hector was dragged here and given to the dogs raw. He laid Hector's body in the dust beside Patroclus's bier.
The others put off armor, freed the horses, and sat down by the ship of the swift-footed son of Peleus in their thousands. He set a great funeral feast before them. Many cattle, sheep, goats, and white-tusked swine were slaughtered, and the blood ran around the corpse in cupfuls.
The Achaean princes led Achilles to Agamemnon, though rage for his comrade made him hard to persuade. At the tent they told the heralds to set a great tripod on the fire, hoping to wash the blood from Achilles — but he refused utterly.
He swore by Zeus that no water would come near his head until he had laid Patroclus on the fire and heaped a mound and cut his hair, since never again would he feel such grief while he lived. For now they should take the meal; at dawn Agamemnon should order wood brought for the dead man to go down into the murky dark.