The Breath of Fame

Lasting names, brief lives, and the price of remembrance

A name may outlive a person, but that promise leaves its value unsettled. Achilles sets lasting fame against a long life, then speaks from among the dead about the worth of being alive. Marcus questions what remembrance can give, while Oderisi measures worldly reputation against eternity.

1. Iliad 9.410–416
2. Odyssey 11.488–491
3. Meditations 4.19.1
4. Purgatorio 11.100–108