Tuesday, November 10, 2009

What do you get from greatness?

“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 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.”

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, pg 265, line 547

This is a conversation between Odysseus and Achilles during Odysseus's time talking with various people in the underworld. Both wish for the lives each are living or have lived, according to Achilles he is longing to live again as Odysseus is now. But on the other hand Odysseus wishes to be just as great as Achilles is now, and wants to be as celebrated a hero as he. I believe this conversation shows how suffering once again arises in The Odyssey. Achilles may be dead and suffering but at the same time his accomplishments are still remembered and glorified by all. To Achilles though, he would rather be suffering on earth just for the chance to live again and give up all his greatness. In this case greatness may just give you suffering in the end, unlike earlier instances in the book were they show suffering gives greatness.


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