Why so much grief for me? No man will hurl me down to Death, against my fate. And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you - itโs born with us the day that we are born.
HomerBut you, Achilles,/ There is not a man in the world more blest than you--/ There never has been, never will be one./ Time was, when you were alive, we Argives/ honored you as a god, and now down here, I see/ You Lord it over the dead in all your power./ So grieve no more at dying, great Achilles.โ I reassured the ghost, but he broke out protesting,/ โNo winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!/ By god, Iโd rather slave on earth for another man--/ Some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep aliveโthan rule down here over all the breathless dead.
Homer