13-14: ‘For there ... when we meet.’ In both the Iliad and the Odyssey Homer describes scenes in which those living are briefly reunited with their dead loved ones. The ghost of Patroclus in the Iliad returns to visit his dearest friend, Achilles, so as to urge him to see to his burial in prompt fashion as his wraith is barred entrance to Hades: "wandering in vain along the broad-gated house of Hades" (XXIII 75). Patroclus also asks Achilles to have their bones buried together in the event of his death. Achilles, anxious to dispel formalities, eagerly agrees to his request and begs Patroclus, "stand closer to me now: let us embrace each other, if only for a short while, and have our pleasure in the sorrow of tears" (XXIII 99). However, Achilles’ wish is frustrated as he grasps at the incorporeal wraith. A not too dissimilar event takes place in the Odyssey when Odysseus meets his mother in Hades and yearns to embrace her. Describing the encounter Odysseus says: "Without knowing whether I could, I yearned to embrace her spirit, dead though she was. Three times in my eagerness to clasp her to me, I started forward, she slipped through my hands and left me pierced by an even sharper pain" (XI 204-209). Odysseus’ mother explains the reason for such an occurrence: "It is the law of our mortal nature, when we come to die. We no longer have sinews keeping the bones and flesh together; once life has departed from our white bones and flesh together, all is consumed by the fierce heat of the blazing fire, and the soul slips away like a dream and goes fluttering on its way" (XI 218-222). Kochanowski, looking towards his death and reunion with Orszula in the afterlife, strikes a similar emotional chord to that of Admetus when he expresses the wish to his dying wife Alcestis that they should live together as man and wife in the Underworld: "But now wait for me to arrive there when I die and prepare a home where you may dwell with me." Euripides, Alcestis 361-363.