...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 give 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..."