Achilles’ Choice 

“No, herds of cattle, flocks of sheep and goats,
have them, have them not, no matter; these are things
on which one may lay hand, and can be got
by taking them from others; just the same
with tripods, pots, and breeds of thoroughbreds.
But breath, a man’s last breath, that thing
cannot be held, cannot be seized from others’
grip, cannot be recaught, when once             
its tiny cage is broken, and it’s gone.⸺
My mother Thetis, dweller in the deep, one time
revealed to me the secret of my life:
she said the path I travel to my death
is forked. If I should choose the way
of staying here, and making war on Troy,
I’ve tossed away my compass home, but carved my fame
in story ever-growing like a tree;
but if I choose the other path, the path of voyage
homeward, to the blessings that are there,
my story’s life is short, but my life long;
for Death shall not pursue me on my way.” 

[Iliad 9.406-416]