The Funeral Of Sarpedon

Zeus mourns deeply: Patroklos has killed Sarpedon. Now Patroklos and the Achaians rush on to snatch up the body, to dishonour it. But Zeus doesn't tolerate that at all. Though he let his favourite child be killed this the Law required he'll at least honour him after death. So he now sends Apollo down to the plain with instructions about how the body should be tended. Apollo reverently raises the hero's body and carries it in sorrow to the river. He washes the dust and blood away, heals the terrible wounds so there's no trace left, pours perfume of ambrosia over it, and dresses it in radiant Olympian robes. He bleaches the skin, and with a pearl comb combs out the jet black hair. He spreads and arranges the beautiful limbs. Now he looks like a young king, a royal charioteer- twenty-five or twenty-six years old- resting himself after winning the prize in a famous race, his chariot all gold and his horses the fastest. Having finished his task this way, Apollo calls for the two brothers, Sleep and Death, and orders them to take the body to Lykia, the rich country. So the two brothers, Sleep and Death, set off on foot toward the rich country, Lykia; and when they reached the door of the king's palace, they handed over the honoured body and then returned to their other concerns. And once the body was received in the palace the sad burial began, with processions and honours and dirges, with many libations from sacred vessels, with all pomp and circumstance. Then skilled workers from the city and celebrated craftsmen in stone came to make the tombstone and the tomb.