The principal antagonist is King Agamemnon, who abuses his power and betrays Achilles by stealing the warrior's favorite war prize, the young maiden Briseis. Achilles sees Agamemnon's act as both a personal betrayal and a sign of the king's failure as a leader.
Patroclus's tolerance of Achilles's warrior mentality does have limits: when Achilles attempts to allow Agamemnon to assault Patroclus's closest friend, Briseis, Patroclus betrays Achilles in order to stop it. But even in his betrayal, Patroclus is trying to protect Achilles from committing a dishonorable act.
According to legend, the Trojan prince Paris killed Achilles by shooting him in the heel with an arrow. Paris was avenging his brother, Hector, whom Achilles had slain. Though the death of Achilles is not described in the Iliad, his funeral is mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.
Achilles refuses to fight because Agamemnon stole away from him a beautiful young maiden named Briseis whom he'd won as a prize for his achievement in battle.
Mythology. According to her mythology, Briseis was the daughter of Briseus, though her mother was unnamed. She had three full brothers who died in the sack of Lyrnessus. In the Iliad, when Achilles led the assault on Lyrnessus during the Trojan War, he captured Briseis and slew her parents and brothers.
Achilles is initially angry because the leader of the Greek forces, King Agamemnon, takes a captive woman named Briseis from him. Early Greek society was highly competitive and a man's honour was vital to his sense of identity and position.
Centuries later, various Greek texts presented Achilles and Patroclus as pederastic lovers (a common practice in Greek society where an older male and younger male form a sexual relationship).
The one-on-one combat ends with Achilles killing Hector. Still pulsing with anger and needing to satisfy his revenge and grief for having lost Patroclus, Achilles allows Achaean soldiers to stab and mutilate Hector's corpse.
Achilles' most distinctive characteristic is his invulnerability, coupled with the fact that he has one small spot on his body which is vulnerable. The lesson, it seems, is that everyone has their weakness, capable of bringing them down.
Paris himself, soon after, received a fatal wound from an arrow shot by the rival archer Philoctetes.
Shakespeare. William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida portrays Achilles and Patroclus as lovers in the eyes of the Greeks. Achilles' decision to spend his days in his tent with Patroclus is seen by Odysseus (called Ulysses in the play) and many other Greeks as the chief reason for anxiety about Troy.
Plato for his part puts in the mouth of Phaedrus the opinion that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers (Symp. 179e–180b), though Phaedrus, expressly refuting Aeschylus, specifies that Achilles, who was younger than Patroclus, was the young beloved.
As was customary by the laws of hospitality in ancient Greece, they gave him lodging and entertained him with banquets and gifts. Paris and Helen fell madly in love from the moment they met. Helen escaped with Paris and together they went to Troy. Some said the Trojan prince had kidnapped her.
Though never specified it can be inferred that Patroclus is gay. Deidama was heartbroken and jealous of Achilles's love for Patroclus, Deidameia summons Patroclus to have sex with her, which he does; he notes that she seemed to want something more from him, which he was unable to provide. .
Just as Achilles does not eat, he does not sleep during his suffering: he cries for Patroclus every night “and sleep, before whom all things bow, could take no hold upon him” (Iliad 24.4–5).
Patroclus and Achilles relationship is a deep bond because they grew up together, and this has been viewed and interpreted by others as a romantic relationship rather than purely platonic. Although, there is no certainty regarding what the proper label is to put on the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles.
The warrior Achilles is one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. According to legend, Achilles was extraordinarily strong, courageous and loyal, but he had one vulnerability–his “Achilles heel.” Homer's epic poem the Iliad tells the story of his adventures during the last year of the Trojan War.
Neoptolemus, in Greek legend, the son of Achilles, the hero of the Greek army at Troy, and of Deïdamia, daughter of King Lycomedes of Scyros; he was sometimes called Pyrrhus, meaning “Red-haired.” In the last year of the Trojan War the Greek hero Odysseus brought him to Troy after the Trojan seer Helenus had declared ...
Patroclus, that terror who routed Trojans headlong. Achilles led them now in a throbbing chant of sorrow, laying his man-killing hands on his great friend's chest: "Farewell, Patroclus, even there in the House of Death!
Achilles pours ashes on Patroklos' face and body. Weeping Nereids appear around him like mourners at a funeral. Thetis, standing, cradles his head like a mother holding a dead son lying on a bier, as Kakridis notes.
Why did Achilles kill Hector? Achilles kills Hector because Hector kills Patroclus. The bond between Achilles and Patroclus is extremely close, and Achilles becomes enraged when Patroclus dies. He insists on being the one to kill Hector and goes to great lengths to avenge his friend's death.
Lycomedes was a king of the Island of Scyros who had beautiful daughters. Thetis who learned that her son, Achilles, would die in the Trojan War decided to hide him away at the palace of Lycomedes. Achilles fell in love with one of Lycomedes' daughters, Deidamia, and impregnated her.
Achilles was cremated and his ashes buried in the same urn as those of his friend Patroclus. This was well, because it was said that Achilles and Patroclus shared the love that dares not speak its name.
The grief shown by Achilles is, in fact, similar to the grief experienced by modern soldiers when they lose one of their comrades-in-arms. Upon hearing the news of Patroclus, he sinks into a heavy depression, forgoing food and even contemplating suicide.