"No winning words about death to me, shining Odysseus!
By god, I’d rather slave on earth for another man –
some dirt-poor tenant farmer who scrapes to keep alive –
than rule down here over all the breathless dead."
– Homer
The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 555-558. Here we have some of the most famous words in The Odyssey, spoken by the ghost of a regretful and disconsolate Achilles, who died in the Trojan War. Achilles rejects Odysseus’ view that a glorious death like his at Troy is to be envied, instead he is envious of Odysseus for being alive. He would rather be a poor farmer barely scraping a living, than lording it over the ghosts in the House of Death, he asserts. A poor life is better than a glorious death, according to the hero, who now regrets that he squandered life in pursuit of glory and an early death. Achilles’ words overturn on its head the ancient Greek concept of kleos, meaning eternal fame, often achieved by dying violent and dramatic deaths on the field of battle.