Page:Freud - Reflections on war and death.djvu/72

Rh knowledge. The reply which the soul of Achilles made to Odysseus comes to our mind:

Erst in the life on the earth, no less than a god we revered thee, We the Achaeans; and now in the realm of the dead as a monarch Here thou dost rule; then why should death thus grieve thee, Achilles? Thus did I speak: forthwith then answering thus he addressed me. Speak not smoothly of death, I beseech, O famous Odysseus, Better by far to remain on the earth as the thrall of another. E'en of a portionless man that hath means right scanty of living. Rather than reign sole king in the realm of the bodiless phantoms. Odysseus XI, verse 484-491 Translated by H. B. Coterill.

Heine has rendered this in a forcible and bitter parody: