The Song of Achilles

The heralds come for Briseis. Patroclus realizes that Achilles revels in the vision of himself as “the wronged young man” (273) who accepts the theft of his prize stoically. Patroclus is ordered to fetch Briseis. He whispers an apology to her, and she kisses him. After they lead her away, Patroclus turns on Achilles, who wants only to speak with his mother. After Achilles leaves, Patroclus rages and refuses to accept Briseis’s fate.

He goes to Agamemnon’s tent, where he finds Briseis bound. Patroclus lifts his knife and slashes his wrist, shocking Agamemnon into silence. Patroclus has drawn his blood for an oath, promising to tell Agamemnon the truth. Patroclus reveals that Agamemnon will endanger himself if he rapes Briseis because she is still Achilles’s prize. To violate her is to violate Achilles, which would give him the right to kill Agamemnon lawfully. Achilles knew this and allowed Agamemnon to take Briseis, knowing Agamemnon would not be able to resist raping her. Agamemnon wonders why his counselors did not warn him, then realizes that they would gain his position if he were to fall from power.

Agamemnon points out that Patroclus has betrayed Achilles by revealing his plan. Patroclus knows this, but he also knows that Achilles was wrong to sacrifice Briseis for his own gain. Agamemnon is delighted, knowing that nothing could hurt Achilles more than being betrayed by the person with whom he is closest. He reiterates his willingness to free Briseis if Achilles will kneel before him and perform the loyalty oath. Patroclus ignores him. He unbinds Briseis and leaves, confident that he has ensured her safety.

Achilles is back at their tent when Patroclus returns. Noticing the blood on Patroclus’s wrist, Achilles asks who hurt him. Patroclus tells him everything. Achilles reminds him that he could have killed, exiled, or otherwise forced Agamemnon from the throne, and “[t]he men would have honored me like a god” (279). Achilles asks if Patroclus is happy trading Briseis’s safety for Achilles’s honor. Patroclus tells him that “[t]here is no honor in betraying your friends” (280). Achilles accuses him of choosing Briseis over his lover, and Patroclus corrects him. He chose Briseis over Achilles’s “hubris” (280), his overweening arrogance. Achilles says that he will die soon; all he can hope for is to be remembered. Patroclus replies that he “would have the memory be worthy of the man” (280). Achilles tells Patroclus that he is the “better man” (281).

After Achilles complains to Thetis that the Greeks dishonored him and “ruined his immortal reputation” (282), she devises a scheme for vengeance. Zeus, “the great balancer” (283), is in her debt, and she will ensure that he pays it by causing the Greeks to lose over and over until Agamemnon begs for forgiveness from Achilles. Patroclus is horrified that Achilles has sentenced so many Greeks to die.

He recalls a conversation that he and Achilles had with Chiron. Chiron told them that no life was more important than another. Every man was someone’s brother, son, or friend. As boys, Patroclus and Achilles could not grasp this. Torn between his loyalty to the soldiers he has treated and to Achilles, Patroclus still feels unable, though he knows now what he would say to Chiron: “Whichever you choose, you are wrong” (284). Patroclus has saved Briseis, but he cannot save everyone. He cannot take from Achilles his honor; it is all he has left.

Patroclus visits Briseis and finds her well-dressed, wearing a lapis lazuli necklace. Agamemnon has done this to broadcast how well he is treating Achilles’s prize, a sign of his esteem for the great warrior. He hovers over Patroclus and Briseis, reminding Patroclus that all Achilles needs to do is apologize for his excessive pride. In her native tongue, Briseis asks Patroclus how long it will be before she is released. He tells her that he does not know, privately musing, “How much heat does it take for iron to grow soft enough to bend?” (285).

The next day, all the armies but the Phthian one march off to fight the Trojans. Achilles and Patroclus wonder what the gods will do.

That night, Phoinix arrives with news. Paris offered to fight one of the Greeks in single combat, with the winner taking Helen. Menelaus agreed and took the upper hand, but just as he was ready to cast the final blow, Paris vanished from the field, and an arrow pierced Menelaus. Enraged at what they saw as betrayal, the Greeks attacked the Trojans. The two sides fought throughout the afternoon, until Hector offered a second truce. He and Ajax fought in single combat, but neither could take the upper hand. The Greeks grumbled that the outcome would have been different had Achilles been fighting. Believing his plan is coming to fruition, Achilles is thrilled.

The next morning, Achilles and Patroclus see the Lycians, Anatolian allies of Troy, marching to join the war, “as if summoned by Zeus himself” (289). Their leader, Sarpedon, is a son of Zeus. At the end of the day’s battle, Machaon’s tent overflows with wounded soldiers. The Trojans continue to make gains in the ensuing days. Patroclus feels grief at the funeral pyres that burn continuously, each for a man he once knew.

Phoinix visits Achilles’s tent with Odysseus and Ajax. They offer Achilles treasure, including the return of Briseis. They tell him of the many Greek dead and warn him that the Trojans are just outside their walls and plan to attack at dawn. Achilles is unmoved. He will not fight until Agamemnon apologizes publicly. Odysseus, who seems to know of the prophecy, reminds Achilles that he chose to come to Troy, and now he “must live by it” (292). Still Achilles refuses.

Phoinix tells Achilles that he will abide by his decision, but first Achilles should listen to the story of Meleager. Patroclus vaguely recalls hearing Peleus telling the story years earlier. Phoinix tells how Meleager of Calydon, having been dishonored by his own men, refused to fight until his wife, Cleopatra, begged him to defend the city and her friends. His love for her compelled Meleager to fight, but by then, too many Calydonians had died. Rather than being grateful, the people hated Meleager for “not having spared them sooner” (294). Achilles again refuses to fight, but Patroclus understands that the story was meant for him. He will have to convince Achilles to fight before the Greeks turn against Achilles as the Calydonians turned against Meleager.

After Achilles falls sleep, Patroclus slips out of the tent to visit Briseis. He warns her of the impending Trojan attack, forgetting that they will see her as one of their own and protect her. Should the attack succeed, she offers to protect him by claiming him as her husband. They hold each other, and Patroclus muses that he might have been happy to marry and have a child with her, if he “had never known Achilles” (298).

Lying beside Achilles that night, Patroclus gazes at his lover’s boyish face, “earnest and guileless, full of mischief, but without malice” (299). He laments that Achilles has become tangled in Agamemnon and Odysseus’s power games and double meanings. He wishes that he could free him. 

Achilles and Patroclus “wake to shouts and thunder” (300). True to his promise to Thetis, Zeus has sent a storm to punctuate the Trojan attack. The wall protecting the Greek camp is vulnerable. If it falls, the Trojans will burn the Greeks’ ships, their only means of escape. They will transform from an army into a group of refugees. The moment Thetis and Achilles orchestrated has arrived, and now Patroclus wants to know when Achilles will intervene. “Never” (300), he replies, unless Agamemnon begs for his forgiveness or lies dead before him.

Achilles and Patroclus dress and eat, Achilles preoccupied with thoughts of how to spend their day. In thinking of the men now under threat, whose medical wounds he tended, Patroclus cannot focus on Achilles’s words. Further down the beach, he sees a man being carried on a stretcher into the infirmary and goes to investigate. It is Machaon, who is gravely injured and begs Patroclus to appeal to Achilles. Patroclus thinks of the Calydonians kneeling at Cleopatra’s feet, of her having to tell them no. Seeing his comrades terrorized and bloody, Patroclus feels responsible. Thessalian prince Eurypylus appears with an arrow point stuck in his leg. Patroclus begins to work on him while Eurypylus, gritting his teeth, debates whether he hates Achilles or the Trojans more.

The Trojans breach the Greek wall, enter the camp, and begin setting the ships on fire. Patroclus sees Hector elegantly throw a torch onto a ship’s wooden deck, setting it on fire and smiling. The only thing keeping the Greeks going is Ajax’s strength, but then he too falls.

Patroclus runs back to Achilles, weeping that he will be hated and that “all his gold would be turned to ashes and ruin” (306). He begs Achilles not to blame Agamemnon’s actions on the Greek soldiers who have honored him. Achilles bitterly notes that no one stood up for him. Patroclus acknowledges their foolishness but adds that “they are still our people” (307). Achilles replies that the Myrmidons are their people, and the rest must save themselves.

In a final desperate attempt to sway him, Patroclus asks Achilles to save them as a personal favor. When he again refuses, Patroclus asks to wear Achilles’s armor into battle. The Trojans will think it is Achilles and flee. He will not have to break his oath, and the Greeks will be saved. Achilles is reluctant, until Patroclus appeals to his pride. The ruse will show that Achilles’s “phantom is more powerful than Agamemnon’s whole army” (309). Achilles cannot resist. He makes Patroclus swear that he will not fight and will stay in the chariot with Automedon, with the Myrmidons in front of him. Patroclus agrees, thrilled that he will save both the Greeks and Achilles.

Achilles helps dress Patroclus in Achilles’s armor, reminding him not to fight since doing so will give him away. Patroclus steps into the chariot with Automedon and lifts his spear. The Greek troops see him and believe he is Achilles. They shout his name with joy. Patroclus gives an answering cry, and the Greeks rally. Many Trojans flee, but not all. Whether from wearing Achilles’s armor or years of watching him, Patroclus feels emboldened. He hefts his spear and strikes a Trojan. Automedon tries to remind him not to fight, but Patroclus ignores him. He reaches for more spears, which “seemed to leap into” (313) his hand, and kills two more Trojans. Hector organizes a full Trojan retreat. Patroclus orders Automedon to follow them towards the city gates, the reenergized Greeks behind him. From his time in the infirmary, Patroclus knows their weaknesses and exploits them as he continues to hurl spears.

From the chaos emerges a chariot carrying Sarpedon. Patroclus thinks of how his hands tore down the Greeks’ wall and killed Patroclus’s comrades. He raises a spear, but Automedon grabs his arm and begins to drive them away. Sarpedon throws his spear, piercing one of the horses and sending Patroclus’s chariot into the dirt. Patroclus stands, plants his feet, and hurls his spear. It does not pierce Sarpedon’s armor, but the force sends him falling backwards, breaking his neck when he lands. To ensure his death is attributed to Achilles, Patroclus buries his spear into Sarpedon’s chest.

Seeing their fallen leader, Lycian soldiers begin to swarm Patroclus. Automedon arrives in their chariot and begs him to leave, but bloodlust has Patroclus in its grip. He leaps from the chariot and begins to climb Troy’s impenetrable walls. He hears a musical voice call his name from above and looks up. It is Apollo, who lifts Patroclus by his armor and drops him back to earth. Intent on breaching Troy and rescuing Helen, Patroclus repeats his climb. Apollo drops him back to earth again, knocking off Patroclus’s helmet in the process and revealing his true identity. Spears fly toward him, one of them lodging into his leg. While he is lying in the dirt, he sees Hector walking towards him. He grabs the knees of the men around him, desperate that Hector not kill him because “Achilles will not let him live if he does” (318), but no one is paying attention. All eyes are on Hector. He buries his spear in Patroclus and twists it inside him, “as if he is stirring a pot” (319). Patroclus’s last thought is, “Achilles” (319).