Book 23 Summary

Now that Patroklos has been avenged, Achilles is ready to bury him properly. He refuses to wash the soil and blood of the battlefield from his body until he has lit the funeral pyre under him and buried his ashes, which he proposes to do in the morning. Exhausted, Achilles falls asleep on the beach.

As he sleeps, Patroklos appears to him in a dream, and asks him to bury him as quickly as possible, as he must wander beside the gates of Hades until he has been cremated and buried. He also reminds Achilles that his own fate is to die under the Trojan walls, and asks to have their bones laid together in the same urn, just as they grew up together in the same house when they were children.

The funeral preparations are elaborate. Achilles cuts off a lock of...