The Odyssey

by Homer

Around him sleep the clustering seals, the daughters of lovely Lady Brine. Their breath smells sour from gray seawater, pungent salty depths.

Birds nested there but hunted out at sea: the owls, the hawks, the gulls with gaping beaks. A ripe and verdant vine, hung thick with grapes, was stretched to coil around her cave. Four springs spurted with sparkling water as they laced 70 with crisscross currents intertwined together. The meadow softly bloomed with celery and violets. He gazed around in wonder and joy, at sights to please even a god. Even the deathless god who once killed Argos stood still, his heart amazed at all he saw.

Achilles, you should not be bitter at your death.’ But he replied, ‘Odysseus, you must not comfort me for death. I would prefer to be a workman, hired by a poor man on a peasant farm, 490 than rule as king of all the dead.