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

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:

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