“I spake; Achilles quickly answered me:— ‘Noble Ulysses, speak not thus of death, As if thou couldst console me. I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some man of mean estate, who makes scant cheer, Rather than reign o’er all who have gone down To death. Speak rather of my noble son, Whether or not he yet has joined the wars To fight among the foremost of the host. And tell me also if thou aught hast heard Of blameless Peleus—whether he be yet Honored among his many Myrmidons, Or do they hold him now in small esteem In Hellas and in Phthia, since old age Unnerves his hands and feet, and I no more Am there, beneath the sun, to give him aid, Strong as I was on the wide plain of Troy, When warring for the Achaian cause I smote That valiant people. Could I come again, But for a moment, with my former strength, Into my father’s palace, I would make That strength and these unconquerable hands A terror to the men who do him wrong, And rob him of the honor due a king.’
“He spake; I answered: ‘Nothing have I heard Of blameless Peleus, but I will relate The truth concerning Neoptolemus, Thy son, as thou requirest. Him I took From Scyros in a gallant barque to join The well-armed Greeks. Know, then, that when we sat In council, planning to conduct the war Against the city of Troy, he always rose The first to speak, nor were his words unwise. The godlike Nestor and myself alone Rivalled him in debate. And when we fought About the city walls, he loitered not Among the others in the numerous host, But hastened on before them, giving place To no man there in valor. Many men He slew in desperate combat, whom to name Were past my power, so many were they all Whom in the cause of Greece he struck to earth. Yet one I name, Eurypylus, the son Of Telephus, who perished by his sword With many of his band, Citeians, led To war because of liberal gifts bestowed Upon their chieftain’s wife; the noblest he Of men, in form, whom I have ever