Achilles and Patroclus were lovers : a thread

!!! this thread is made for fun. i am not a historian just a soul who loves history. achilles and patroclus are mythical figures, so this thread is just gathering small fragments of what could have been a homoerotic relationship.

well, enjoy!!!

1) Agamemnon & Achilles
Achilles decided NOT to participate in the battle, due to his anger at being dishonored by Agamemnon.

// Agamemnon had to let go of Chryseis (who he had enslaved) which made him furious, so he decided to ‘steal’ Achilles’ slave girl, Briseis.

Patroclus convinced Achilles to let him lead the Myrmidon army into battle - he succeeded in beating the Trojan army. During the battle he was wearing Achilles’ armor, so nobody knew that he in fact was Patroclus and not Achilles.

At the end of the battle, Patroclus was killed by the Trojan prince, Hector. When the news of Patroclus’ death reached Achilles, the strong and unbreakable warrior broke. The death of his lifelong companion caused him great sorrow.

The rage that followed from Patroclus’ death became the prime motivation for Achilles to return to the battlefield. He wanted to avenge Patroclus’ death by killing Hector.

-> even though he knew, that killing Hector also would cost him his own life. Achilles defeated Hector and after Hector’s death, Achilles dragged his corpse by the heels behind his chariot.

2) Works
Their relationship was portrayed as same-sex love in the works of Aeschylus, Plato, Pindar and Aeschines.

Aeschylus’ tragedy ‘The Myrmidons’ only exists in small fragments today, but the pieces testify to the homosexual relationship between Achilles and Patroclus.

In Fr. 136 Achilles says (to Patroclus’ dead corpse):
“[…] the reverent company of your thighs” -> which indicates that their relationship was sexual.

In Plato’s ‘Symposion’, Phaedrus holds up Achilles and Patroclus as an example of divinely approved lovers.

In the speech ‘Against Timarchus’ (346 BCE) by the Athenian politician, Aeschines, he says:

(‘Against Timarchus’ is one of the most valuable sources there is about Athenian attitudes to homosexuality.)

“Although (Homer) speaks in many places of Patroclus and Achilles, he hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship, thinking that the exceeding greatness of their affection is manifest to such of his hearers as are educated men”

3) WE TWO ALONE
Homer, Iliad 16, lines 1-256

Achilles: “You must turn back once you bring the light of salvation to the ships, and let others go on fighting in the flat land. Father Zeus, Athene and Apollo, if only not one or all the Trojans could escape destruction. +

Not one of the Argives, but you and I could emerge from the slaughter so that we two alone could break Troy’s hallowed coronal.”

Achilles wishes that they were the only two people left so that they could achieve ultimate glory (quite a selfish thought) BUT he includes Patroclus

- this shows how strong and intimate their relationship is. Patroclus holds a superior position to others in Achilles’ heart.

4) Achilles after receiving the news of Patroclus’ death

Iliad, 18
“[…] seeing that my dear comrade Patroclus has fallen--he whom I valued more than all others, and loved as dearly as my own life? I have lost him; […]”

Iliad, 18
“I will pursue Hector who has slain him whom I loved so dearly, and then abide my doom when it may please Jove and the other gods to send it”

5) Poly philatatos
Achilles refers to Patroclus as poly philtatos. This can be translated as “the most beloved by far”

In later times the term philos came to mean “friend”, but the original meaning of “lover” is proven by Homeric usage.