During this time, Peleus made Patroclus one of Achilles' "henchmen". [21], Achilles and Patroclus grew up together after Menoitios gave Patroclus to Achilles' father, Peleus. Below I’ve posted a good Youtube video I found about this same subject. Sein Vater war Peleus. And as for the way Achilles grieves, it certainly underscores their intimacy, but doesn’t necessarily imply a sexual intimacy. It’s also worth noting that some folks with much better credentials than me appear to disagree with some of my conclusions. Here are some of his words: “My dear comrade’s dead - Patroclus - the man I loved beyond all other comrades, loved as my own life - I’ve lost him.” Book 18. Gregory Nagy, who may well be the world’s leading authority on the Iliad and the meaning behind the text, writes that, “For Achilles ... in his own ascending scale of affection as dramatized by the entire composition of the Iliad, the highest place must belong to Patroklos.” Again, nothing necessarily sexual. There are many other similar moments, but I think you get the picture. did portray Achilles and Patroclus as lovers. I’m not convinced he wanted us to think they were lovers, but there are a few passages that certainly open up the possibility. Patroclus, a young comrade of Achilles, travels to Troy to help the Greeks win Helen back from the clutches of the Trojan Paris. [3] However, this pronunciation is seldom encountered: for metrical convenience, Alexander Pope had made the 'o' long, and thus stressed, in his translation of Homer, following a convention of Greek and Latin verse, and that pronunciation – of Latin pa.trō′.clus – has stuck, for English /pəˈtroʊ.kləs/. They presented them as part of a pederastic relationship, which was a custom at the time in which an older male (usually in his twenties) formed a sexual relationship with a younger male (usually in his teens). I wouldn’t normally write an article in response to a single person’s opinion online, but I have come across this sentiment many times over the years. Plato presents one version in his Symposium, while Aeschylus presents another in his lost play The Myrmidons (meanwhile others at the time, such as Xenophon, don’t seem convinced the two were lovers at all). Ledbetter does so by comparing how Thetis comforts the weeping Achilles in Book 1 of the Iliad to how Achilles comforts Patroclus as he weeps in Book 16. Achilles even wishes that all of the other soldiers, both Greek and Trojan, would perish so he and Patroclus could conquer Troy by themselves (Book 16). He pressed against me, crushing my lips to wine" (100). [10] Menoetius was the son of Actor,[11] king of Opus in Locris by Aegina, daughter of Asopus. We even have a fragment from a lost tragedy of Aeschylus, where Achilles speaks of his and Patroclus’ “frequent kisses.”. This is how they are portrayed, for instance, in Madeline Miller’s novel The Song of Achilles (published in 2012) and in the BBC television series Troy: Fall of a City(released in 2018).Many people have wondered how faithful these portrayals are to the ancient sources. There is certainly an argument that myths evolve over time and Homer’s version is just one (albeit important) link in that ongoing chain. Skip to main content.com.au. (German Edition) eBook: West, Thomas, Mayer, Steve: Amazon.com.au: Kindle Store. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Patroclus&oldid=988785895, Articles with incomplete citations from February 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 15 November 2020, at 06:34. [16] Achilles did not allow the burial of Patroclus' body until the ghost of Patroclus appeared and demanded his burial in order to pass into Hades. So, there really is no “true” answer in the same way we know that, say, the United States was founded in 1776. Patroklos (griechisch Πάτροκλος „Ruhm des Vaters“, lateinisch Patroclus) ist in der griechischen Mythologie einer der griechischen Kämpfer vor Troja, Sohn des Menoitios und der Sthenele, der Freund und Waffengefährte des Achilleus. So certainty isn’t really on the table here. [18] According to Ledbetter (1993),[19] there is a train of thought that Patroclus could have been a representation of the compassionate side of Achilles, who was known for his rage, mentioned in the first line of Homer's Iliad. It’s one of the big questions of Greek mythology that continues to be debated thousands of years later: were Achilles and Patroclus lovers? Achilles Returns to the Fight. Achilles is the strongest, more virile of men—the son of a nymph and a mortal man, Achilles was prophesized at birth to either die an … Try. After Patroclus is killed by Hector, Achilles reacts with intense sorrow and anger, going as far to say that he has lost his will to live until he is able to avenge Patroclus’ life.