[Indeed he would provide such solace, as Gilgamesh has so given him before. Yet the king of Uruk asks not for the salve of pleasure, and nor had Achilles had any appetite when his heart was carved hollow by the loss of his own companion. Thus he will let him steer the evening in whichever direction he pleases.]

I fear that I cannot. In my dear native land we have bards to tell stories and messengers to deliver news. The only practical purpose for letters is in ledger keeping, that a man might keep record of his herds and his gold. I however spent much of my adolescence away from my father's house, first atop Mount Pelion and then upon Scyros in the house of Lycomedes, and so I never learned. I suppose that now it matters not, as I have been denied my homecoming and never shall take Peleus' place of eminence in his house. But if you so wish to teach me, then gladly I should learn.