The Iliad - Book 16 - Patroclus fights and dies
- Reading time: about an hour
- Myrmidons are Achilles' troops.
- Picture of Patroclus and Achilles:
- Achilles decides to send Patroclus into battle.
- 1-119. This is the first time we have seen Achilles since Book 9, during Achilles’s angry rejection of Agamemnon’s partial apology. We see Patroclus and Achilles together for the first time, and the last time as well. This is the pivotal relationship in the epic. How would you describe their friendship?
- Notice how Achilles’s reply to
Patroclus’s suggestion (that Patroclus disguise
himself as Achilles) shows Achilles’s change of
mind. He gives up his full revenge for a compromise
solution. He saves face by not fighting himself yet
he allows aid to the Achaeans. Remember, this is just
one day after the embassy found him sulking in his
tent. It is strange that in allowing Patroclus to go
in his stead, Achilles warns Patroclus to be
successful but not too successful lest Patroclus rob
glory from Achilles.
- After we see Hector force Ajax back,
Patroclus begins to arm. (155 ff) Patroclus is arming
for death, he unknowing, we fully aware of the
importance of this moment.
- Achilles’ prayer: Achilles prays that Patroclus drive the Trojans back and come home safely. The irony of the line: "Zeus in all his wisdom heard those prayers. One prayer the Father granted, the other he denied" (295) [Discuss Iliad Bk16 Q01]
- Mueller points out that Achilles had prayed for the destruction of the Achaeans, and Patroclus is destroyed in answer to the prayer.
- Patroclus kills Sarpedon (570).
- The bloody battle leads first to the slaying of Sarpedon. Patroclus brings down this worthy opponent (570). Sarpedon is the perfect soldier. Recall his exhortation in 12. 370-380.
- Sarpedon's dying prayer to Glaucus: "Glaucus--oh, dear friend, dear fighter, soldier's soldier…" (580). This is the warrior's spirit. Notice how dying Sarpedon asks his friend, Glaucus, to rescue his body. This parallels what Achilles must do for Patroclus' body. Mueller points out how Patroclus, however, unlike Sarpedon, must die alone, apart from his friend.
- A long struggle for Sarpedon’s body follows
- as Patroclus forgets Achilles’ warning not to fight more than is necessary (650).
- 800: "Patroclus went for Troy's and Lycia's lines, blind in his fatal frenzy--luckless soldier. If only he had obeyed Achilles' strict command he might have escaped his doom, the stark night of death."
- Patroclus kills Hector's driver and--worse--taunts the corpse: "a nimble, flashy tumbler" (869).
- Patroclus forgets Achilles' admonition in a blind rage of slaughter: “blind in his fatal frenzy—luckless soldier” (801).
- This is a comment by the narrator that certainly calls our attention that Patroclus has gone too far.
- kai m°g' éãsyh nÆpiow -- "But he was greatly blinded/infatuated/drunk, the idiot/silly child" is the literal translation.
- Patroclus’s death must follow soon after that judgment.
- Euphorbus wounds Patroclus and Hector finishes him off. This is the only instance in which another fighter kills someone originally wounded by someone else (Mueller).
- Hector triumphs over the dying Patroclus (970). Hector fancies he knows what Achilles must have said to Patroclus. How well does Hector's imaginings correspond to what Achilles actually said? (980)
- Patroclus must die, but should Hector taunt and jeer at the corpse the way he does? (967- 984) Is that appropriate for a great spirit such as Patroclus? Why does Homer have Hector do that?
- How does Patroclus answer Hector? (995)
- How clearly does Hector understand his fate (1005)?
- Reflect in your discussion about some points of significance surrounding Patroclus's fight and death. [Discuss Iliad Bk16 Q02]