michael-dean-k/

This line is a shocker. Achilles said this? The moral question of the Iliad is framed on his decision: to live a long, obscure, happy life with family on a farm? Or, to die in the Trojan War and have his name achieve immortality? He continuously denies his fear of death, and seems to always hold a thousand-year perspective, where life is irrelevant in light of our eventual destiny: men either fade or become tales. If Hades is inevitable, then all that matters is glory.

But this admission inverts his whole value system, the entire premise of glory and legacy. And it's not coming from anyone, but the legendary hero. He confesses he made the wrong decision. A single moment of consciousness, even as a slave, in the most of unglorious of situations, is worth more than achieving the pinnacle of glory, fame amongst the living and the dead.

A more nuanced take here: glory is still glorious, but perhaps it's not worth glorymaxxing. As in, you shouldn't build your whole life around building a noble name and reputation that will outlast you after death; you should never trade your life for instant-legend status. Glory still matters; ie: you want to leave a good impressions for your kids and grandkids, and maybe it extends beyond that, but you shouldn't sacrifice the singular and fragile gift of life for concessions in the plane of glory. Put another way, there's almost nothing worth dying for, besides, perhaps your kids, for they are, I suppose, the end receiver of glory anyway.

This idea—"nothing is worth dying for"—is maybe symbolic of Paris, who backs out of his duel with Menelaus, and is then branded a coward (this reminded me of Montaigne as mayor, fleeing town when the plague hit, instead of staying to help). Paris is the antithesis of Achilles, and it's fateful that he is the one who kills him. (The "Achilles Heel" myth came after the Iliad, and I wonder if the irony of him being remembered for thousands of years, but for this weakness, has something to do with post-Homeric authors being disillusioned by his confession in Hades—it's cautionary about glorymaxxing). How would the ghost of Achilles reflect on the duel? In the moment, he might have cringed at Paris; knowing what he now knows of Hades, might he feel different? Might he do whatever it takes to live?

Since Odysseus has limited interiority, we don't see him react to the confession of Achilles at all. We're also not sure if he fully believes this, because then he immediately asks Odysseus about the glory of his son ("Is he one of the best? Is he respected?").

But you could imagine a parallel universe where Odysseus is shaken by this confession. They are of similar rank and status. Odysseus conceived the Trojan Horse! That lives on forever too, more so than Achilles. To be told that a boring life beats glory? And to be told it in Hades itself, where you can see it and believe it? How could this not shake him? Odysseus is in the middle of a wandermaxxing epic. You'd think this moment could be a turning point in his whole psychology. In an alternative version, here's how that might work: prior to this point, the victory is fresh, the spirit of exploration is strong, and him and his crew might dream of new ordeals to append to their legend (in the lands of Cyclops and such)—but this news from Achilles could be sobering, a dagger, causing them to change course, to get home as fast as possible.