Kleos vs. The Value Of Life

“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.”

This quote, more than any other shows the change between the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad celebrated kleos, whereas the the Odyssey celebrates life, and Odysseus' wily way of preserving himself rather than going out in a burst of glory.

Although kleos is still clearly very important, the Odyssey acknowledges that there are things more important. It celebrates home, family, and life as opposed to glory, murder, and death.