Achilles Meets Agamemnon

2And there they found the soul of Peleus’ son,
His friend Patroclus, and the blameless chief
Antilochus, and Ajax, who excelled
In stature and in form all other Greeks
Save the great son of Peleus. These were grouped
Around Achilles. Then approached the ghost
Of Agamemnon, Atreus’ son; he seemed
In sorrow, and around him others stood,
Who in the palace of Aegisthus met
Their fate and died. The son of Peleus took
The word, and spoke to Agamemnon thus: —

3“Atrides, we had thought that Zeus, who wields
The thunder, favored you, through all your years,
Beyond all other men —you did bear rule
Over so many and such valiant men
Upon the plain of Troy, where we of Greece
Endured such sufferings. Yet all too soon
The cruel doom of death, which no man born
Of woman can escape, has fallen on you.
O, if amid the honors of your sway
That doom had overtaken you, while yet
In Troy’s far realm, then would the assembled Greeks
Have built a tomb to you! You would have left
A heritage of glory to your son;
Now have you died a most unhappy death.”