If only you had died your death in the full flush of the glory you had mastered - died on Trojan soil! Then all united Achaea would have raised your tomb and you'd have won your son great fame for years to come. Not so. You were fated to die a wretched death.

"If only you had died your death in the full flush
of the glory you had mastered – died on Trojan soil!
Then all united Achaea would have raised your tomb
and you’d have won your son great fame for years to come.
Not so. You were fated to die a wretched death."

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 24, lines 32-36. Achilles expresses the glorification of heroic combat when he says this to Agamemnon in the underworld. He tells Agamemnon that if only he had died while fighting in Troy, he would have had a much more glorious death. Instead fate marked him out for a "wretched death." This is a reference to King Agamemnon’s murder by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus after he returned from the Trojan war.

Homer Quotes