Hovering at his head the phantom rose and spoke:
"Sleeping Achilles? You’ve forgotten me, my friend.
You never neglected me in life, only now in death.
Bury me, quickly – let me pass the Gates of Hades.
They hold me off at a distance, all the souls,
the shades of the burnt out breathless dead,
never to let me cross the river, mingle with them…
They leave me to wander up and down, abandoned, lost
at the house of death with the all-embracing gates.
Oh give me your hand – I beg you with my tears!
Never, never again shall I return from Hades
once you have given me the soothing rites of fire."
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 23, lines 80-91. Achilles lies down to sleep on the beach and his friend Patroclus appears to him in a dream. He requests that Achilles complete his funeral rites to allow him pass the gates of Hades into the world of the dead. As it is he is kept at a distance, not allowed to cross the river, but abandoned at the gates of the house of death.