Achilles Among the Dead

46“Thus in sad talk we stood, and freely flowed
Our tears. Meanwhile the ghosts of Peleus’ son
Achilles, and Patroclus, excellent
Antilochus, and Ajax, all drew near —
Ajax for form and stature eminent
Over all the Greeks save Peleus’ faultless son.
Then did the soul of fleet Aeacides
Know me, and thus in winged words he said: —

47“ ‘Odysseus! what has moved you to attempt
This greatest of your labors? How is it
That you have found the courage to descend
To Hades, where the dead, the bodiless forms
Of those whose work is done on earth, abide?’

48“He spoke; I answered: ‘Greatest of the Greeks!
Achilles, son of Peleus! It was to hear
The counsel of Tiresias that I came,
If haply he might tell me by what means
To reach my rugged Ithaca again;
For yet have I not trod my native coast,
Nor even have drawn nigh to Greece. I meet
Misfortunes everywhere. But as for you,
Achilles, no man lived before your time,
Nor will hereafter live, more fortunate
Than you —for while alive we honored you
As if you were a god, and now again
In these abodes you rule over the dead;
Therefore, Achilles, should you not be sad.’