Patroclus

The Latinized name Patroclus derives from the Ancient Greek Pátroklos ({{lang|grc|Πάτροκλος}}), meaning "glory of his father," from {{lang|grc|πατήρ}} (patḗr, "father" stem pátr-) and {{lang|grc|κλέος}} (kléos, "glory"). A variation of the name with the same components in different order is Kleópatros, while the feminine form of the name is Cleopatra.

There are at least three pronunciations of the name 'Patroclus' in English.Carey (1816) Practical English Prosody and Versification, p. 125 fn Because the penultimate syllable is light in Latin prose (pă′.trŏ.clŭs), the antepenult was stressed in Latin and would normally be stressed in English as well, for {{IPAc-en|ˈ|p|æ|t|.|r|ə|.|k|l|ə|s}} (analogous to 'Sophocles').Bechtel (1908) Pronunciation 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 {{IPAc-en|p|ə|ˈ|t|r|oʊ|.|k|l|ə|s}}.{{dict.com|Patroclus}}

Moreover, because in prose, a penultimate Greco-Latin short o (omicron) would only be stressed in a closed syllable, the penult has sometimes been misanalysed as being closed (*pă.trŏc′.lŭs), which would change the English o to a short vowel: {{IPAc-en|p|ə|ˈ|t|r|ɒ|k|.|l|ə|s}}.{{Cite dictionary |url=http://www.lexico.com/definition/Patroclus |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200322182248/https://www.lexico.com/definition/patroclus |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 22, 2020 |title=Patroclus |dictionary=Lexico UK English Dictionary |publisher=Oxford University Press}}

In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Patroclus was illustrated as "... handsome and powerfully built. His eyes were gray. He was modest, dependable, wise, a man richly endowed."Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy [https://www.theoi.com/Text/DaresPhrygius.html 13]

Patroclus was the son of Menoetius (hence called Menoetiades {{lang|grc|Μενοιτιάδης}}, meaning "son of Menoetius")[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=Menoetius Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, Menoetius] by either PhilomelaEustathius on Homer, p. 1498; Scholia on Homer, Odyssey 4.343 and 17.134; Hyginus, Fabulae 97{{Cite book|last=Tzetzes|first=John|title=Allegories of the Iliad|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library|year=2015|isbn=978-0-674-96785-4|location=Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England|pages=33, Prologue 430; pp. 41, Prologue 525|translator-last=Goldwyn|translator-first=Adam|translator-last2=Kokkini|translator-first2=Dimitra}} or Polymele, Sthenele,Scholia on Homer, Iliad 16.14; on Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.46; Periopis,Apollodorus, [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1:3.13.8 3.13.8] mentions the three possible mothers of Patroclus: (1) Polymele, daughter of Peleus (according to Philocrates), (2) Sthenele, daughter of Acastus and lastly (3) Periopis, daughter of Pheres or lastly Damocrateia.Pythaenetos, quoting the scholiast on Pindar, Olympian Odes 9.107 His only sibling was Myrto, mother of Eucleia by Heracles.Plutarch, Aristides 20.6 Homer also references Menoetius as the individual who gave Patroclus to Peleus.Homer, Iliad [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:23.54-23.92 23.85 ff.] Menoetius was the son of Actor,Homer, Iliad [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:11.780-11.821 11.785], [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:16.1-16.45 16.14]. king of Opus in Locris, by Aegina, daughter of Asopus. Patroclus was Achilles's first cousin once removed through their paternal family connection to Aegina, as Achilles was the son of Peleus and grandson of Aeacus, son of Aegina by Zeus.

File:Casa degli Amorini Dorati. Fresco. 03.jpg depicting Achilles seated between Briseis and Patroclus in the marquee|215x215px]]

During his childhood, Patroclus had accidentally killed his playmate Clysonymus over a game of dice. As a result, he was exiled from his home, Opus, with Menoetius sending him to Peleus, king of Phthia and father of Achilles.{{Cite web |last=Miate |first=Liana |year=2022 |title=Patroclus |url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Patroclus/ |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=World History Encyclopedia |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Schlunk |first=Robin R. |date=1976 |title=The Theme of the Suppliant-Exile in the Iliad |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/293625 |journal=The American Journal of Philology |volume=97 |issue=3 |pages=199–209 |doi=10.2307/293625|jstor=293625 |url-access=subscription }} Peleus named Patroclus Achilles's "squire", as they both grew up together and became close friends.{{cite book |author=Homer |author-link=Homer |title=Iliad |title-link=Iliad |chapter-url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:23.54-23.92 |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |chapter=online text |at=23.83–92}} Patroclus acted as a male role model for Achilles, being both kinder than him as well as wiser regarding counsel.{{cite book |title=Patroklos, Achilleus, and Peleus: Fathers and Sons in the Iliad |last=Finlay |first=Robert |publisher=The Classical World |year=1980 |pages=267–273}} Patroclus's early life, including his flight to the house of Peleus, is narrated later in the Iliad, when his ghost appears to Achilles reminding him about his past and giving him advice about his burial.

According to Photius, Ptolemy Hephaestion (probably referring to Ptolemy Chennus) wrote that Patroclus was also loved by the sea god Poseidon, who taught him the art of riding horses.Photius, Bibliotheca [https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/photius_copyright/photius_05bibliotheca.htm#190 codex 190].

Image:Akhilleus Patroklos Antikensammlung Berlin F2278.jpg bandaging Patroclus's arm, by the Sosias Painter.|left]]

According to the Iliad, when the tide of the Trojan War had turned against the Greeks and the Trojans were threatening their ships, Patroclus convinced Achilles to let him lead the Myrmidons into combat. Achilles consented, giving Patroclus the armor Achilles had received from his father in order for Patroclus to impersonate Achilles. Achilles then told Patroclus to return after beating the Trojans back from their ships.{{cite book |title=The Iliad of Homer |last=Lattimore |first=Richmond |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2011 |location=Chicago}}{{rp|pages=353 book 16, lines 64–87}}

Patroclus defied Achilles's order and pursued the Trojans back to the gates of Troy.{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology |year=1849 |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionarygreek02smitgoog |last=Smith |first=William |publisher=Little |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/dictionarygreek02smitgoog/page/n162 140]}} Patroclus killed many Trojans and Trojan allies, including a son of Zeus, Sarpedon.{{rp|pages=p. 363, book 16, line 460}} While fighting, Patroclus's wits were removed by Apollo, after which the spear of Euphorbos hit Patroclus.{{Cite journal |last=Allan |first=William |date=2005 |title=Arms and the Man: Euphorbus, Hector, and the Death of Patroclus |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cq/bmi001 |journal=The Classical Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=2 |doi=10.1093/cq/bmi001 |issn=0009-8388 |via=Cambridge University Press|url-access=subscription }} Hector then kills Patroclus by stabbing him in the stomach with a spear.{{rp|pages=p. 373, book 16, lines 804–822}}

File:Patroclus corpse MAN Firenze.jpg and Meriones lift the body of Patroclus while Odysseus and others look on (Etruscan relief, 2nd century BC)]]

Achilles retrieved his body, which had been stripped of armor by Hector and protected on the battlefield by Menelaus and Ajax.{{cite book |title=The Golden Age |last=Bulfinch |first=Thomas |publisher=Bracken Books |year=1985 |location=London |page=272}} Achilles did not allow the burial of Patroclus's body until the ghost of Patroclus appeared and demanded his burial in order to pass into Hades.{{rp|pages=p. 474, book 23, lines 69–71}}

Patroclus was then cremated on a funeral pyre, which was covered in the hair of his sorrowful companions. As the cutting of hair was a sign of grief while also acting as a sign of the separation of the living and the dead, this points to how well-liked Patroclus had been.{{cite book |title=The Iliad of Homer |last=Martin |first=Richard |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |year=2011 |location=Chicago, IL}}{{rp|page=561}} The ashes of Achilles were said to have been buried in a golden urn along with those of Patroclus by the Hellespont.{{Cite journal |last=Chisholm |first=Hugh |date=1911 |title=Achilles |journal=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=11th}}

{{main article|Achilles and Patroclus}}

Although there is no explicit sexual relationship between Achilles and Patroclus in the Homeric tradition, a few later Greek authors wrote about what they saw as implied in the text regarding their relationship. Aeschylus and Phaedrus, for example, state there was a clear relationship between them. Aeschylus refers to Achilles as the erastes, while Phaedrus refers to Achilles as the eromenos of the relationship.{{cite book |last1=Michelakis |first1=Pantelis |last2=Michelakēs |first2=Pantelēs |title=Achilles in Greek tragedy |date=2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-81843-8 |edition=1. publ}} Morales and Mariscal state, "There is a polemical tradition concerning the nature of the relationship between the two heroes."{{cite journal |jstor=3556498 |title=The Relationship between Achilles and Patroclus according to Chariton of Aphrodisias |journal=The Classical Quarterly |volume=53 |issue=1 |pages=292–295 |last1=Morales |first1=Manuel Sanz |last2=Mariscal |first2=Gabriel Laguna |year=2003 |doi=10.1093/cq/53.1.292}}

File:Pasquino Group 2013 February.jpg

According to Ledbetter (1993), 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. Ledbetter connects the way that Achilles and his mother, Thetis, communicate to the link between Achilles and Patroclus. 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 uses a simile containing a young girl tearfully looking at her mother to complete the comparison. Ledbetter believes this puts Patroclus into a subordinate role to that of Achilles.{{cite journal |last=Ledbetter |first=Grace |date=December 1, 1993 |title=Achilles' self-address |journal=American Journal of Philology |doi=10.2307/295421 |jstor=295421 |df=dmy-all |volume=114 |page=481}} However, as Patroclus is explicitly stated to be the elder of the two characters,{{cite book |author=Homer |author-link=Homer |title=Iliad |title-link=Iliad |at=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:11.780-11.821 11.785–790]}} this is not evidence of their ages or social relation to each other.

James Hooker describes the literary reasons for Patroclus's character within the Iliad. He states that another character could have filled the role of confidant for Achilles and that it was only through Patroclus that we have a worthy reason for Achilles's wrath.{{Cite journal |last=Nickel |first=Roberto |date=2002 |title=Euphorbus and the Death of Achilles |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1192597 |journal=Phoenix |volume=56 |issue=3/4 |pages=215–233 |doi=10.2307/1192597 |jstor=1192597 |issn=0031-8299|url-access=subscription }} Hooker claims that without the death of Patroclus, an event that weighed heavily upon him, Achilles's following act of compliance to fight would have disrupted the balance of the Iliad.{{cite journal |last=Hooker |first=James |date=January 1, 1989 |title=Homer, Patroclus, Achilles |journal=Symbolae Osloenses |volume=64 |pages=30–35 |doi=10.1080/00397678908590822 |df=dmy-all}}

Hooker describes the necessity of Patroclus sharing a deep affection with Achilles within the Iliad. According to his theory, this affection allows an even more profound tragedy to occur. Hooker argues that the greater the love, the greater the loss. Hooker continues to negate Ledbetter's theory that Patroclus is in some way a surrogate for Achilles; rather, Hooker views Patroclus's character as a counterpart to that of Achilles. Hooker reminds us that it is Patroclus who pushes the Trojans back, which Hooker claims makes Patroclus a hero, as well as foreshadowing what Achilles is to do.

Achilles and Patroclus grew up together after Menoitios gave Patroclus to Achilles's father, Peleus. During this time, Peleus made Patroclus one of Achilles's "henchmen."{{cite book |title=The Iliad of Homer |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |page=474 |last1=Homer}} {{full citation needed|reason=Needs translator or editor & year; at least 2 other versions citedd|date=February 2020}} While Homer's Iliad never explicitly stated that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers, this concept was propounded by some later authors.{{cite book |title=Alexander the Great: The story of an ancient life |last=Martin |first=Thomas R. |year=2012 |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0521148443 |pages=99–100}}{{cite book |title=Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality |url=https://archive.org/details/christianitysoci00bosw_280 |url-access=limited |last=Boswell |first=John |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1980 |location=Chicago |page=[https://archive.org/details/christianitysoci00bosw_280/page/n62 47]}}{{efn|As Martin (2012), argues, "The ancient sources do not report, however, what modern scholars have asserted: that Alexander and his very close friend Hephaestion were lovers. Achilles and his equally close friend Patroclus provided the legendary model for this friendship, but Homer in the Iliad never suggested that they had sex with each other. (That came from later authors.) If Alexander and Hephaestion did have a sexual relationship, it would have been transgressive by majority Greek standards ..."{{rp|pages= 99 ff}} }}

File:JL David Les funérailles de Patrocle.jpg, 1778.]]

Aeschines asserts that there was no need to explicitly state the relationship as a romantic one, for such "is manifest to such of his hearers as are educated men."{{cite book |title=The Speeches: Against Telemarchus, on the Embassy, Against Ctesiphon |author=Aeschines |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1958 |location=London, UK |page=[https://archive.org/details/speechesagainstt00aescuoft/page/115 115] |translator=Adams, Charles Darwin |url=https://archive.org/details/speechesagainstt00aescuoft}} In later Greek writings, such as Plato's Symposium, the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles is discussed as a model of romantic love.{{cite book |author-link=Plato |author=Plato |title-link=Symposium (Plato) |title=Symposium |pages=[http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg011.perseus-eng1:179e 179e–180b]}} However, Xenophon, in his Symposium, had Socrates argue that it was inaccurate to label their relationship as romantic. Nevertheless, their relationship is said to have inspired Alexander the Great in his own close relationship with his life-long companion Hephaestion.{{cite book |title=The Classical World |last=Lane Fox |first=Robin |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2005 |page=235}}

In the Iliad, Achilles was younger than Patroclus.{{efn|name=Nestors_advice|Nestor, quoting Patroclus's father Menoetius, reminds Patroclus of his father's advice: "My child, in birth is Achilles nobler than thou, but thou art the elder though in might he is the better far. Yet do thou speak to him well a word of wisdom and give him counsel, and direct him; and he will obey thee to his profit."{{cite book |author=Homer |author-link=Homer |title=Iliad |title-link=Iliad |chapter-url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:11.780-11.821 |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |chapter=online text |at=11.786}}}}{{efn|Plato in his Symposium{{cite book |author=Homer |author-link=Homer |title=Iliad |title-link=Iliad |chapter-url=http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg011.perseus-eng1:180a |publisher=Perseus Digital Library |chapter=online text |at=180a}} has one of his characters say that Achilles was "much the younger, by Homer's account".}} This reinforces Dowden's explanation of the relationship between an eromenos, a youth in transition, and an erastes, an older male who had recently made the same transition.{{rp|page= 112}} Dowden also notes the common occurrence of such relationships as a form of initiation.{{rp|page= 114}} However, Statius in the Achilleid states that the two were either within the same age group or acted as if they were.{{cite book |last1=Butler |first1=Shane |title=Deep Classics: Rethinking Classical Reception |date=5 May 2016 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-1-4742-6053-4 |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KNeiCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |quote=For good measure, Poliziano throws in a unique example of a compromise view, reporting that the Roman poet Statius, in his unfinished epic, the Achilleid, makes Achilles and Patroclus 'equals in age', though Poliziano curiously (and uncharacteristically) misparaphrases the relevant lines (which he then quotes), in which we are told that the two, as boys, simply acted the same age, though the latter 'fell far behind in strength'.}}{{cite book |last1=Ingleheart |first1=Jennifer |author1-link=Jennifer Ingleheart |title=Masculine Plural: Queer Classics, Sex, and Education |date=4 September 2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-255160-3 |page=268 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzdtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA268 |quote=... and that Patroclus is par studiis aeuique modis, 1.176. This latter phrase is difficult: it probably means something like 'equal in the pursuits and ways of youth', and Bainbrigge may have taken it as inspiration ...}}

Patroclus is a character in William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida. In the play, Achilles, who has become lazy, is besotted with Patroclus, and the other characters complain that Achilles and Patroclus are too busy having sex to fight in the war.{{Cite web|title=Troilus and Cressida Full Text|url=http://shakespeare.mit.edu/troilus_cressida/full.html}}{{Cite journal|last=Perkins|first=Kristin|date=2019|title=Taking the Kissing Path: Making the Homoerotic Modern in Fixing Troilus and Cressida|url=|journal=Borrowers and Lenders|volume=XII (2)}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist|25em |refs=

{{cite book|title=The Uses of Greek Mythology |last=Dowden |first=Ken |publisher=Routledge |year=1992 |location=London, UK}} }}

• Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd., 1921. {{ISBN|0-674-99135-4}}. [http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0548.tlg001.perseus-eng1 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd., 1924. [http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0012.tlg001.perseus-eng1:1.1-1.32 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library].
• {{cite book |author=Plato |author-link=Plator |title-link=Symposium (Plato) |title=Symposium |series=Plato in Twelve Volumes |volume=9 |translator=Fowler, Harold N. |place=Cambridge, MA; London, UK |publisher=Harvard University Press; William Heinemann Ltd. |year=1925}}{{cite web |url=http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg011.perseus-eng1 |title=Online version |website=Perseus Digital Library}}
• Tzetzes, John, Allegories of the Iliad translated by Goldwyn, Adam J. and Kokkini, Dimitra. Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library, Harvard University Press, 2015. {{ISBN|978-0-674-96785-4}}

• {{cite book |last=Evslin| first=Bernard | author-link=Bernard Evslin | title=Gods, Demigods and Demons |publisher=I. Tauris |location=London, UK |year=2006}}
• {{cite book |last=Michelakis |first=Pantelis |title=Achilles in Greek Tragedy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |year=2007}}
• {{cite book |last=Kerenyi |first=Karl |author-link=Károly Kerényi |title=The Heroes of the Greeks |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London, UK |year=1959 |pages=57–61, et passim}}
• {{cite book |last=Sergent |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Sergent |title=Homosexuality in Greek Myth |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston, MA |year=1986}}

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