“Achilles in the Underworld—A Modernization of Some Lines from Achilles (in the Odyssey) [Book 11 642-45]
I’d rather have a humbler life on Earth
As one who serves someone of nobler birth
Or labors hard to earn his daily bread
Than reign as first in fame among the dead.
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The lines, from Chapman’s Homer, are:
“I rather wish to live in earth a swain,
or serve a swain for hire, that scarce can gain
Bread to sustain him, than, that life once gone,
of all the dead sway the imperial throne.”
Is Chapman better? Yes! But, I thought it’d be nice to try my hand at a modernization:)
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