Oh, Achilles, you were a sucker

Oh, Achilles, you were a sucker you died and you were forgotten. Perhaps not your name but who you actually were - the details that differentiated you from the other brutes on the beach - and who knows how much Homer just plain made up after a glass or three, and he wasn’t one to disappoint the crowd. If they wanted a little more blood or wanted you to be a little bigger and stronger and not actually have had to fight your fear well then so be it. But that’s not you he’s singing about, let’s be clear. That’s Homer's Achilles, and people are remembering that Achilles, the one he made up to turn a little gold. They're not remembering what you actually did, not what you actually sacrificed - not the beautiful children you could have held, not the fields you would have tilled, not the sunsets you would have pondered leaning on your plow in your old age that you did not have.

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