Friday, December 11, 2009

envy

“But you, Achilles,there’s 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 Argiveshonored 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.”I reassured the ghost, but he broke out, protesting,“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.”- book 11

The heroes soeak on the differences between the two worlds they now inhabit, and each finds they'd rather be on the othe side. Odysseus envies Achilles’ strength and his kleos that it won him; Achilles envies Odysseus for being alive.

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