Patroclus- Greek HeroHero"Companion of Achilles"

Son of Menoetius

Patroclus was the son of Menoetius, a nobleman of Opus in Locris. As a young boy, he killed another child, Clysonymus, in a quarrel over a game of knucklebones. The killing was accidental. Patroclus struck in anger, harder than he meant to, but blood demanded expiation. Menoetius brought his son to Phthia, the kingdom of Peleus, for purification. Peleus, himself no stranger to exile, accepted the boy and raised him alongside his own son Achilles.

Though Patroclus was several years older, Achilles was the son of Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis, and therefore the superior in rank and destiny. Peleus appointed Patroclus as Achilles's therapon, his bonded companion. The two boys grew up together, trained under the centaur Chiron, and were inseparable from boyhood. When Achilles sailed for Troy with the Myrmidons, Patroclus went with him.

The Gentle Warrior

Patroclus was a capable fighter, but gentler than his companion. He tended the wounded Eurypylus, binding his injuries with skill and genuine compassion. He spoke kindly to Achilles's captive Briseis and told her Achilles would make her his lawful wife. She would later mourn Patroclus as the one person who had treated her with tenderness. When the Greek embassy came to Achilles's tent to plead for his return, Patroclus received them graciously, mixing wine and carving meat while Achilles played the lyre.

Patroclus felt the suffering of the Greeks dying on the beach while Achilles nursed his wounded pride. When he came to Achilles weeping over the losses, the ships burning, the heroes falling, Achilles mocked his tears. He compared him to a little girl crying for her mother.

Borrowed Armor

The Greek position had become catastrophic. Hector and the Trojans had driven them back to the ships, and fire was spreading through the fleet. The ships were their only way home. Achilles watched from his tent, still refusing to fight because Agamemnon had taken Briseis.

Patroclus came to him weeping and made his plea. If Achilles would not fight, let Patroclus go in his place. Let him wear Achilles's armor so the Trojans would believe Achilles had returned. Perhaps the sight alone would turn them back.

Achilles agreed, moved by his companion's tears and the burning fleet. But he set conditions: Patroclus could drive the Trojans from the ships but must not pursue them to the walls of Troy. He must not seek glory beyond what was needed. Achilles prayed to Zeus for his companion's success and safe return. Zeus granted half the prayer. Patroclus would save the ships. He would not come back alive.

Patroclus donned Achilles's armor, the famous set that Peleus had received from the gods as a wedding gift. Only the great ash spear of Pelion, too heavy for any mortal but Achilles, stayed behind. Patroclus took his own spear and mounted the chariot drawn by Achilles's immortal horses, Xanthus and Balius.

He burst upon the battlefield. He killed Trojan after Trojan, and then he killed Sarpedon, son of Zeus himself and king of the Lycians. Zeus wept tears of blood for his son but did not intervene. Patroclus drove the Trojans from the ships, back across the plain, back toward the walls of Troy.

Then he forgot Achilles's warning. He pursued the retreating Trojans to the very walls of the city. Three times he tried to scale the fortifications. Three times Apollo drove him back with his immortal hands.

The Fall

Apollo struck from behind, invisible. He hit Patroclus between the shoulders with the flat of his hand, and everything came apart at once. Achilles's helmet flew from his head, a helmet that had never before touched the ground, now rolling in the dust beneath the horses' hooves. His corselet loosened. His spear shattered in his grip. He stood dazed and defenseless in the midst of his enemies.

Euphorbus struck first, a spear driven into Patroclus's back. Then Hector came. He drove his spear into Patroclus's belly. Patroclus fell, and even in dying he prophesied: Hector himself would not live long, for Achilles would kill him soon. Hector stripped the armor from the body, Achilles's divine armor, and put it on himself.

The battle over the corpse lasted hours. Greeks and Trojans fought savagely, neither willing to yield. Ajax held the Trojans off while Menelaus and Meriones bore the body away. Antilochus ran ahead to bring Achilles the news.

The Golden Urn

When Achilles learned of Patroclus's death, his grief was absolute. He fell to the ground, poured dust and ash over his head, tore at his hair. His screams were so terrible that Thetis heard them in the depths of the sea and rose with her Nereids to comfort him. Antilochus held Achilles's hands for fear he would cut his own throat.

Achilles refused food and could not sleep. He lay with Patroclus's body, embracing the corpse and speaking to it. In a dream, Patroclus's ghost appeared, reproaching him gently for not yet performing the funeral rites: "You sleep, Achilles, and you have forgotten me." The shade asked that their bones be placed together in the golden urn Thetis had given Achilles, so that in death they would not be separated. Achilles reached out to embrace the ghost. It slipped through his hands like smoke and vanished underground.

Thetis brought new armor from Hephaestus, including the great shield whose surface the smith god filled with images of the world. Achilles donned it for vengeance. He killed Hector, dragged the body behind his chariot around Patroclus's bier, and relented only when old Priam came to ransom his son's corpse. Twelve Trojan captives were sacrificed on Patroclus's pyre, an act Homer himself calls evil. Achilles promised that his own ashes would be mingled with Patroclus's when his time came.

The promise was kept. When Achilles fell, killed by Paris's arrow guided by Apollo, his bones were gathered with Patroclus's and placed in the golden urn. A great mound was raised over them at the Hellespont, visible to ships for all time. Centuries later, when Alexander the Great crossed into Asia in 334 BCE, he made his first act a pilgrimage to the tomb. He ran naked around Achilles's grave and laid a wreath upon it, while his companion Hephaestion honored Patroclus's monument beside it.