These words will recall to the student of Homer a passage from the twenty-third book of the Iliad, where an account is given of the funeral ceremonies of Patroclus.
“First the horsemen came, and then a cloud of infantry behind,
Tens of thousands; his companions bore Patroclus in the midst,
And the corpse they sadly covered with the locks which grief had shorn.”
v. 133-5
And again—
“Then another deed devised Achilles, godlike, swift of foot;
Stationed sad behind the pyre he dipt his locks of yellow hair,
Which, luxuriant shed, he cherished to Spercheius’ flowing stream.”
v. 140-3.