Achilles has kleos. In the Underworld, however, he reveals that this glory does not replace life.
In the heroic universe, kleos is what remains when the body disappears: renown, song, memory transmitted by others. It gives warriors a reason to risk their lives, because a short existence can become greater than a long one.
The Odyssey looks at this value from a distance. Odysseus has won immense glory at Troy, but that glory does not bring him home. It can even weigh him down, because it feeds his desire to be recognized at the wrong moment.
The meeting with Achilles in the Underworld is therefore decisive. The most glorious of heroes says, from the world of the dead, that ordinary life is worth more than a fame emptied of presence. The poem does not destroy kleos; it reveals its price.