“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.
Miscellaneous Inanities 
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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