Homer (Iliad written c. 700 BCE)
“No one is going to send me down to Hades before my time, though death itself, I think, is something no man, coward or hero, can escape, once he has come into this world.”
- From The Iliad (Book 6, approximately between line 490) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and revised by Peter Jones (Penguin Classics, 2014). The quote comes from a farewell speech delivered by the Trojan hero, Hector, to his wife and child before heading off to war.