Patroclus
There are two Christian saints with this name: Patroclus of Bourges and Patroclus of Troyes. |
A cup depicting Achilles bandaging Patroklos' arm, by the Sosias Painter. This could be interpreted as a homosexual scene. [1]. |
In
Greek mythology, as recorded in the
Iliad by
Homer,
Patroclus, or
Pátroklos (Gr.
"glory of the father"), son of
Menoetius, was
Achilles' best friend and, according to some primary sources, his lover.
Menoetius was a member of the
Argonauts in his youth. He made several marriages, and in different versions of the tale four different women are named as the mother of Patroclus.
Apollodorus of Athens names three wives of Menoetius as possible mothers of Patroclus:
Periopis, daughter of
Pheres, founder of
Pherae;
Polymele, daughter of
Peleus, King of
Phthia and older half-sister of Achilles; and
Sthenele, daughter of
Acastus and
Astydameia.
Gaius Julius Hyginus names
Philomena as Patroclus' mother; although Hyginus gives no origin for Philomena, she might be related to her namesake daughter of
Pandion I,
King of Athens and
Zeuxippe.
Menoetius was a son of
Actor, King of
Opus in
Locris by
Aegina. Aegina was a daughter of
Asopus and mother of
Aeacus by
Zeus. Aeacus was father of Peleus,
Telamon and
Phocus.
Actor was a son of
Deion, King of
Phocis and
Diomede. His paternal grandparents were
Aeolus of
Thessaly and
Enarete. His maternal grandparents were
Xuthus and
Creusa, daughter of
Erechtheus and
Praxithea.
While still a boy, Patroclus killed his friend,
Clysonymus, during an argument. His father fled with Patroclus into exile to evade revenge, and they took shelter at the palace of their kinsman King Peleus of Phthia. There Patroclus apparently first met Peleus' son Achilles. Peleus sent the boys to be raised by
Chiron, the cave-dwelling wise King of the
centaurs.
Patroclus was likely somewhat older than Achilles. He is listed among the unsuccessful suitors of
Helen of
Sparta. Helen instead was given by
Tyndareus to
Menelaus. All suitors took a most solemn
oath to defend the chosen husband against whoever should quarrel with him.
At about that time Patroclus killed
Las, founder of a namesake
city near
Gytheio,
Laconia, according to
Pausanias the geographer. Pausanias reported that the killing was alternatively attributed to Achilles. However Achilles was not otherwise said to have ever visited
Peloponnesos.
Nine years later, Helen fled Sparta with Prince
Paris of
Troy. Menelaus and his brother
Agamemnon, King of
Mycenae, started contemplating war against Troy. The preparations for war and gathering of allies and armies took him ten years, according to some versions.
When Achilles refused to fight because of his feud with Agamemnon, Patroclus donned his armor, led the
Myrmidons and killed many Trojans, including
Sarpedon (a son of Zeus), and
Cebriones (the chariot driver of
Hector). He was killed by
Hector and Euphorbos, with help from
Apollo.
After retrieving his body, which had been protected on the field by Menelaus and
Telamonian Aias, Achilles returned to battle and avenged his companion's death by killing Hector. Achilles then desecrated Hector's body by dragging it behind his
chariot instead of allowing the Trojans to honorably dispose of it by burning it. Achilles' grief was great and for some time, he refused to dispose of Patroclus' body; but he was persuaded to do so by an apparition of Patroclus, who told Achilles he could not enter
Hades without a proper
cremation. Achilles cut a lock of his hair, and
sacrificed
horses,
dogs, and twelve
Trojan captives before placing Patroclus' body on the funeral pyre.
Achilles then organized an athletic competition to honour his dead companion, which included a
chariot race (won by
Diomedes),
boxing (won by
Epeios),
wrestling (a draw between
Telamonian Aias and
Odysseus), a foot race (won by Odysseus), a
duel (a draw between Aias and Diomedes), a
discus throw (won by
Polypoites), an
archery contest (won by
Meriones), and a
javelin throw (won by Agamemnon, unopposed). The games are described in Book 23 of the
Iliad, one of the earliest references to
Greek sports.
In the
Iliad, the love of Achilles for Patroclus drives the story and contributes to the overall theme of the humanization of Achilles. While in the
Iliad this love may be seen as chaste, in later Greek writings, such as
Plato's
Symposium, the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles is held up as a model of sexual love, usually interpreted as
pederastic. The primary disagreement in ancient times was between those, such as
Aeschylus, who held Patroclus to be the
eromenos (beloved) of Achilles, and that of others, including Plato, who argued that Achilles was the
eromenos. Still other ancient authors, such as
Xenophon in his
Symposium, argued that it was a mistake to label their relationship as a sexual one.
The death of
Achilles is given in sources others than the
Iliad. His body was placed on a
funeral pyre. His
bones were mingled with those of Patroclus so that the two would be companions in death as in life and the remains were transferred to
Leuke, an
island in the
Black Sea. Their
souls were reportedly seen wandering the island at times.
In Homer's
Odyssey, Odysseus meets
Achilles in
Hades, accompanied by Patroclus,
Telamonian Aias and
Antilochus.
A general of
Croton identified either as Autoleon or Leonymus reportedly visited the island of Leuke while recovering from wounds received in battle against the
Locri Epizefiri. The event was placed during or after the
7th century BC. He reported having seen Patroclus in the company of
Achilles,
Ajax the Lesser,
Telamonian Aias,
Antilochus, and
Helen.
Patroclus was also the name of
*A
Hellenistic admiral, who commanded the expedition of
Ptolemy III Euergetes to help Athens in
226 BC*A bishop of Arles, who died in
426 AD.
| Achilles and Patroclus myths as told by story tellers |
|---|
| 1. Achilles and Patroclus, read by Timothy Carter |
| Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer Iliad, 9.308, 16.2, 11.780, 23.54 (700 BC); Pindar Olympian Odes, IX (476 BC); Aeschylus Myrmidons, F135-36 (495 BC); Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis, (405 BC); Plato Symposium, 179e (388 BC-367 BC); Statius Achilleid, 161, 174, 182 (96 CE) |
|
