Patroclus
In Greek mythology, Patroclus (in ancient Greek Πάτροκλος Pátroklos) literally 'the glory (κλέος) of the father (πατήρ)') is one of the Greek heroes of the Trojan War, described mainly in the Iliad.
His father was Menoetius. There are different traditions about the identity of his mother: Esténele, daughter of Acasto; Periopis, daughter of Feres or Polypea, daughter of Peleus.
Homeric Elements
Before the war
His father, Menoetius, sends him to Phtia, where he became a companion of Achilles. He is present, like Achilles and his father, when Nestor goes to the court of Peleus in order to recruit warriors for the expedition against Troy; he is invited at the same time as the Pelida Achilles and accepts. His father gives him the following advice:
He raises from me, in lineage advantage Achilles takes you,
But you're old, and he's better with a lot of strength:
So, you talk to him in a wise word and give him prudence.
path and sign, that he will serve you for good and good.
In Troy
Patroclus appears as a companion-in-arms (θεράπων) of Achilles. The Iliad is in doubt as to its exact purpose: canto XVII shows the horses of the Pelida mourning the death of "the one who led them". Automedon, Achilles' charioteer, describes Patroclus as the most gifted in handling horses. In Book XIX of the Iliad, Achilles asks his horses to bring back "the one who drives them", referring to himself, despite the fact that Automedon the charioteer has boarded the chariot before him. he lay "forgotten about the art of driving chariots". Other evidence suggests that Patroclus went to battle in a separate chariot and then fought alongside Achilles. In addition, he serves as a messenger to Achilles, who sends him to Nestor, in song XI, in search of news about the identity of the wounded man who has been taken to the Achaean camp. Likewise, in song I, Patroclus goes by order of Achilles to look for Briseis to deliver her to Agamemnon. When Nestor comes accompanied by Phoenix to implore Achilles to return to combat, it is Patroclus who prepares the wine and food for the guests.
When Achilles, enraged, locks himself in his tent after having argued with Agamemnon, Patroclus also stops fighting. In Song XVI (also called Patroclea, Πατρόκλεια), while the Trojans retake ground from the Greeks and threaten to burn their ships, Achilles authorizes Patroclus to put on his armor and go into battle at the head of his Myrmidons. During his aristia, Patroclus kills some Trojans, including Sarpedon, son of Zeus, before running into Hector, who is helped by Apollo. The god, wrapped in a cloud, hits him on the back; Immediately afterwards, Euphorbo, son of Panto, wounds him again in the same place and immediately flees on the run. Finally, Hector kills Patroclus and strips him of his weapons. Menelaus and Ajax the Great protect his body and hand it over to Achilles, who then decides to take up arms to avenge him.
Thetis, mother of Achilles, gives Patroclus nectar and ambrosia to drink to prevent his corpse from rotting and, at the same time, Achilles confronts Hector and defeats him. The Pelida then offers the Greeks a feast in honor of Patroclus, at the end of which the dead man appears and begs him to burn his corpse as soon as possible. The next morning, Achilles orders a funeral pyre built for Patroclus, cuts off a lock of his hair, and sacrifices oxen, lambs, dogs, and horses, as well as twelve young Trojan noblemen.
Funeral Games
After the cremation of Patroclus, Achilles organizes some games in his honor that included:
- A chariot race, won by Diomedes, which gets a slave and a tripod as the first prize. Antilocus comes second — cheating—, Menelaus third, Meríones fourth and Eumelo last; however, Achilles awarded the second prize.
- A pugilato, won by Epeo, who gets a mule.
- A free fighting test, contested by Ayax the Great and Ulysses. Achilles declares them the same.
- A race on foot, won by Ulysses, who gets a silver crater. Ayax arrives second and receives an ox, Antiloc is third and receives half talent of gold, initially anticipated prize, as well as a second talent of gold for having skillfully flattered Achilles that of light feet.
- One Hoplomaquia (fight with weapons), disputed by Diomedes and Ayax. Achilles judge them equal and distribute the spear, the shield and the helmet of Sarpedon, while Diomedes also receives a sable deal.
- A weight-launch test, won by Polipetes, which gets that weight in raw iron.
- An archery test, won by Merion, which gets ten double-leaf axes. The loser, Teucro, gets ten simple axes.
- A javelin launch test, which does not come to dispute as Achilles stops the two contenders, Agamemnon and Merion, and says everyone knows that the Atrida is the strongest. This one gets a heather and Merion a bronze spear.
These games, recorded in song XXIII of the Iliad, are, together with those organized by Alcínoo in the Odyssey, one of the oldest testimonies of sport in ancient Greece.
Non-Homeric Elements
Authors such as Pseudo-Apolodoro give another version of Patroclus' past. In Opunte he accidentally killed his friend Clytonymus, son of Amphidamas, during an argument over the game of taba when he was still young. He fled, along with his father, and was picked up by Peleus, who gave him his son Achilles as a companion. Apollodorus later introduces him as one of Helen's suitors, but this fact is implausible as many of the suitors were of higher rank than he was.
In the Cyprian Songs, an epic of the Trojan Cycle, Patroclus is named among those who sold Lycaon, son of Priam, when he was captured by the Achaeans. The Iliad confirms this fact in canto XXIII, even though Patroclus is not named in this regard in canto XXI.
In the Olympics (Ολυμπιόνικοι), Pindar presents Patroclus in the company of Achilles when the latter ravages the city of Teutrania (Mysia). Perhaps an illustration of this fact illustrates famous ceramic vase showing Achilles bandaging a wound of Patroclus.
All these elements allow us to assume that the character of Patroclus is not a Homeric invention. Furthermore, in Book I he is introduced for the first time simply as 'the son of Menoetius', who is escorting Achilles and his companions when the hero leaves the kings' council. This allows us to assume that he was a well-known figure who did not need to be personally named or introduced. The possibility has also been suggested that Patroclus was no more than a minor character to whom Homer gave unprecedented importance.
Patroclus and Achilles
Controversy over the nature of their relationship
The friendship of Patroclus and Achilles is proverbial and yet, from the 5th century B.C. C., some Greeks see something else in it. In general, the Greek authors at that time added a pederastic component to mythical friendships such as those of Orestes and Pílades, Theseus and Pirítoo or Heracles and Yolao. In this case, they do not want to know if Patroclus and Achilles were friends or lovers, but why Homer is reserved about their relationship, and if Patroclus was Achilles' eromeno or vice versa. In his work Against Timarchus , the Athenian orator Aeschines states the following:
Although Homero often alludes to Patroclo and Achilles, he silently passes over his desire (.ρως) and avoids pointing out his love (φιλία), considering that the intensity of his affection (ε.νοια) was clear to the cultivated readers. Achilles declares somewhere (...) that, involuntarily, he has infringed the promise made to Menecio, Patroclo's father, for he had assured him that he would bring him back to Opus safely and safely if Menecio trusted him and sent him to Troy with him.
This despite the fact that in song IX of the Iliad (verses 663-668) Achilles and Patroclus are presented sleeping each one with a woman, Achilles with Diomede and Patroclus with Ifis, a woman who, by the way, Achilles himself handed over to Patroclus.
Indeed, for many Greeks, the excessive emotion that Achilles shows after the death of Patroclus, as well as his exaltation in revenge, allow them to doubt the nature of their relationships. Homer's reservations were interpreted as a sign of discretion. Aeschylus develops this theme in his lost tragedy The Myrmidons, in which he bluntly depicts Achilles weeping over the body of his friend while he praises the beauty of his hips and yearns for him. he kisses her In both Aeschylus and Aeschines, Achilles is the erastes and Patroclus the eromenes.
It is possible to question this version if we start from the detail of the beard: Patroclus wears it, while Achilles does not. In fact, it is possible to think that Achilles was the young eromenus and Patroclus the erastes —older in age—, even more so when the admiration provoked by love is that of Patroclus towards Achilles; fact that would corroborate this idea. What is of course indisputable is that the two men love each other—love or friendship—equally.
This is exactly what Plato exposes in The Symposium when he makes Phaedrus say that «Aeschylus is wrong when he affirms that Achilles was the lover of Patroclus, when he was more beautiful not only than Patroclus, but also than all the heroes put together, and his beard had not yet grown, so he was much younger, according to Homer." Despite this disagreement, Phaedrus also has no doubts about the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles.
Later, however, the tradition stabilizes around Aeschylus's version, in keeping with the social status of the two men. Thus, Claudio Aeliano, declares in his Varia Historia: «Alexander put a crown on the tomb of Achilles and Hephaestion on that of Patroclus, wanting to insinuate Hephaestion that he was Alexander's favorite as Patroclus of Achilles. » The controversy of the ancients about the role of each one shows, according to Bernard Sergent, that the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is not linked to the pedophile model: it is simply a relationship of friends between young people of the same generation.
Patroclus, double of Achilles
At the moment of his death, Patroclus symbolizes the double of Achilles, since, while in the preceding songs, Patroclus was distinguished only by the friendship he professes to Achilles and by his generosity with him, suddenly Song XVI (La Patroclea) presents him as a hero who wipes out everything during his aristía. He first kills Pirecmes, chief of the Peonians, Areilicus, Pronous, Thestor, and Erilaus; and then to Erimante, Amfótero, Epalteo, Tlepólemo Danastórida, Equio, Pires, Ifeo, Evipo and Polimelo Argéada. Immediately afterwards he meets a bigger contender: Sarpedon, chief of the Lycian warriors and son of Zeus. Patroclus kills Sarpedon in a duel reminiscent of Achilles and Memnon, chief of the Ethiopians. The fight between Achilles and Memnon was immortalized in the Ethiopida , one of the epics of the Trojan Cycle that was later taken up especially by Quintus of Smyrna.
After having killed Sarpedon, Patroclus follows his impulses and decides to attack Troy itself. This is the only case, before Achilles, in which a hero alone decides an attack against the city walls. Said episode is typical of Achilles, and allows us to suggest the transposition of the typical themes of Pelida in Patroclus. The latter continues to open a deadly breach, killing Adrasto, Antónoo, Equeclo, Périmo Mégada, Epistor, Melanipo, Elaso, Mulio and Pilartes. Homer then declares that "the Achaeans would have taken the haughty Troy under Patroclus" if he had not been stopped by Apollo, who tells him —deepening into the parallelism—:
Stand back, heavenly Patrol! It's not, no, your fairies.take your spear the czar of the Trojan Altives,
Neither does Achilles, which is better than you.
Next, Patroclus takes a step back, only to resume the fight and die on the spot. Like Achilles, he dies at the hands of a mortal—Paris in Achilles' case, Euphorbus and then Hector in Patroclus's—aided by a god—Apollo in both cases. Patroclus and Achilles die before the walls of Troy, and are buried there. In both cases, a long battle lasting a whole day takes place over their bodies, which are protected by Ajax. Lastly, the funerary games organized by Achilles in honor of Patroclus are surprising in their magnitude, which is disproportionate to his lineage. In fact, they are exactly the same as those that will be organized later in honor of Achilles.
Patroclus, double of Antilochus
In his death, Patroclus is the double of Achilles, and he is also the double of Antilochus, son of Nestor, and a very appreciated friend of the Pelis, whom the Achaeans commission precisely to announce the death of Patroclus. Antilochus is killed by Memnon, who seizes his weapons. Achilles, enraged, decides to avenge his death and challenges the Ethiopian to a duel, an episode comparable point by point to the death of Patroclus and Achilles' subsequent revenge.