His name is invoked first by Menelaus, listing the dead. Then by Demodocus singing the war. Then he stands among the shades when Odysseus crosses to the dead, and he stands apart in all ways possible. His body remembers what it was, carrying itself with a violent confidence death has not blunted. The shades part for him. His eyes find Odysseus and his expression shifts, not quite a smile, perhaps the memory of one. He drinks only a handful of the blood. [SPOILER: Odysseus tries to comfort him, says his name is sung in every hall, that he should take comfort in the glory he achieved. Achilles looks at him as few men ever have, as if he were a child speaking of foolish things. Do not comfort me for dying. I would rather work another man’s dirt. Be a landless poor man with nothing, hiring myself out for a meal. I would rather do that and breathe and feel the sun on my neck than be the king of this forsaken place. The bargain that defined his life, glory at the price of his life, looks different from inside the dark. Odysseus leaves shaken because he made the same trade.]
Achilles
The greatest of the Greeks at Troy. Cut down at the peak of his strength. In the Underworld, would rather be a poor laborer alive than king of the dead.