The Song of Achilles

Watching the Greeks rout the Trojans, Achilles anticipates Patroclus’s return and Agamemnon kneeling before him but feels curiously numb. He sees the Greeks and Trojans fighting over a body and wonders who it could be.

The Greek kings walk down the beach toward the Myrmidons’ camp, Menelaus carrying a shroud-covered body. Realizing it is Patroclus, Achilles reaches “for his sword to slash his throat” before realizing that he gave it to Patroclus. He screams Patroclus’s name repeatedly, holding his body close. The “last bit of spirit” that remains in Patroclus’s body “can feel the faint beat of [Achilles’s] chest” (321). Briseis runs over and wails over the body. Achilles asks who killed Patroclus, and Menelaus tells him it was Hector. Achilles starts to leave, but Odysseus stops him, telling him, “Tomorrow” (321).

Weeping and cradling Patroclus’s body, Achilles refuses to eat or sleep. Thetis appears, tells him that Patroclus “did it to himself” (322), and tries to lead Achilles away from the body, but he tells her not to touch him. He tells her that he will kill Hector. She points out that he has no armor.