The Iliad, Book 16

Summary, Book 16

Finally!  It feels like we have been in a holding pattern for a while, but now we have some legitimate action, and the first really important deaths since the story began.  We have heard, in surprisingly minute detail, about the many men who have been killed on both sides.  But these were all people we were just hearing about for the first time at the moment of their deaths.  Not so from here on out.

We begin with Patroclus, who is pleading with his BFF Achilles to please, PLEASE rejoin the troops!  But, failing that, he wants to go enact old Nestor’s plan of wearing Achilles’s armor to trick the Trojans.  Once again, this plan is full of holes.  But Achilles goes for it, on the condition that he only fights long enough to protect the Achaeans’ ships.  Patroclus agrees and heads off.  Achilles goes to rouse the other men.  He pretty much acknowledges that they are all probably thinking he is an incredible tool for sitting around while their fellow soldiers get killed, but he still manages to inspire them.

Achilles prays and makes an offering to Zeus that Patroclus succeeds at forcing the Trojans to retreat from the ships, and that he returns home safely.  And we are told that Zeus will answer one of those prayers and deny the other.

With these words,
Patroclus spurred the strength and heart in every soldier.
Then, in a massed group, they fell upon the Trojans.
Terrifying cries came from Achaeans by their ships.                         

When Trojans saw the brave son of Menoetius
with his attendant, both in glittering armour,
all their hearts were shaken and their ranks fell back.                                     
They thought Peleus’ swift-footed son by his ships
had set aside his anger and made friends again.
Each man glanced around, checking how he might escape
his own complete destruction.

I’m not much for battle scenes, but this is cool.

Anyway, Patroclus becomes a killing machine, as much as Diomedes ever was.  The Trojans make a hasty retreat from the ships, with Patroclus just slaughtering people relentlessly.  It is really violent and graphic.  Sarpedon (Zeus’s mortal son) sees this and is outraged.  He calls to his men (the Lycians) to rally them, and announces that he will go and find out who it is that is slicing down Trojan soldiers.

In the meanwhile, Zeus and Hera are watching this and Zeus is distressed.  He does not want his son to die, but he feels that he has to in order to set his master plan in motion.  He is hemming and hawing, considering saving his life.  Hera insists that if he does so, he will open the floodgates to other gods wanting their mortal offspring spared.  She suggests that he let him be killed, but then allow his body to be brought back to Lycia for an honourable burial.  Ice cold, Hera.  Zeus reluctantly agrees.

Battle between Sarpedon and Patroclus ensues and, as we have been warned, Sarpedon dies.  He is the first important character to die, and it’s a gory death.  His guts come out with Patroclus’s spear.  Gross.

Glaucus hears Sarpedon dying and is “overcome with savage grief.” His arm is wounded and he is unable to fight, but he prays to Apollo to heal him so he can avenge Sarpedon’s death.  Apollo hears him and grants his request.

Finding himself healed, Glaucus hurries to Hector and Aeneas to tell him what happened.  In case there was any doubt in a situation like this, his words had wings. 

 “Hector,
now you’re neglecting all your allies,                     
men who for your sake are far away from friends,
their native land, wasting their lives away.
You’ve no desire to bring assistance.                                                           
Sarpedon, leader of Lycian spearmen,                                             
lies dead, the man who protected Lycia
with his judgment and his power—slaughtered
by Ares on the bronze spear of Patroclus.
My friends, stand by him, keep in your hearts
your sense of shame, in case the Myrmidons
strip off his armour and mutilate his corpse,
in their anger at the dead Danaans,
the ones killed by our spears at their fast ships.”

The Trojans are overcome with grief.  They charge over to the scene of Sarpedon’s death, with Hector leading the way.  The Achaeans and the Trojans  wage a gruesome fight over Sarpedon’s armor.

 Meanwhile, on Olympus:

 Zeus’ bright eyes never once
glanced from that brutal combat, gazing down
and thinking in his heart of many different things
about how lord Patroclus ought to meet his death,
wondering whether glorious Hector should cut him down                           
with his bronze in that bitter fighting there
over godlike Sarpedon and then strip the armour
from his shoulders, or whether he should multiply
grim misery for still more men.

Zeus decides the best course of action would be to allow Patroclus to drive the Trojans further back, and then have Hector kill him.  In short order, that’s what happens.  Zeus “[takes] the courage out of Hector’s heart, causing him to retreat.  He then tells Apollo to take Sarpedon’s body to Lycia to be treated properly.  (Although the Achaeans did snag his armor.)

After he discharges this duty, Apollo appears to Hector as Asius, Hector’s maternal uncle.  Apollo-as-Asius tells Hector that he must kill Patroclus.  In the ensuing fight, Patroclus throws a rock at Hector’s charioteer (also his bastard half-brother) and kills him.  Patroclus mocks him as his dead body topples out of the chariot:

 “Well now,
there’s an agile man! What a graceful diver!
If he were on the fish-filled seas somewhere,                                 
he’d feed a lot of men by catching oysters,
jumping over in the roughest water,
judging from that easy dive he made
out of his chariot onto the plain. I suppose
these Trojans must have acrobats as well.”

Bad idea, Patroclus.

But here’s the thing: Patroclus is about to be wormfood, and we know it, but the scene of his downfall is actually really confusing.  First, Apollo strikes him on the back to confuse him.  Then Apollo knocks off Patroclus’s helmet and loosens his armor. He gets struck and wounded by a Trojan and withdraws from the battle, but Hector sees him and stabs him through with a spear.  As Patroclus is dying, he boasts and laughs.  Patroclus responds:

  

 “Boast on, Hector, for the moment.                                         
Zeus, son of Cronos, and Apollo
have given you victory. They overcame me
easily, for they personally removed
the armour from my shoulders. If twenty men
came to confront me, just like you,
all would have died, slaughtered by my spear.
But deadly Fate and Leto’s son have slain me—
and Euphorbus. So you’re the third in line                                                 
at my death. But I’ll tell you something else—
bear this in mind—you’ll not live long yourself.                            
Your death is already standing close at hand,
a fatal power. For you’ll be destroyed
at brave Achilles’ hands, descendant of Aeacus.”

As Patroclus draws his last breath, Hector offers this lame response:

“Patroclus, why predict my own death for me?
Who knows? It may happen that Achilles,                                      
son of fair-haired Thetis, is hit first
by a spear of mine and gives up his life.”

Except, Hector, you already know you are going to die in this battle!  He had a vision when he said goodbye to his wife and baby.  So it seems that the glory is going to Hector’s head a bit.  Hector steps on the body to remove his spear and sets off.

Reading Notes

Wow, after the way the last few books plodded along, this one was packed and intense!  First of all, Hector’s moment of glory (killing Patroclus) was not really especially glorious.  He killed a wounded guy who had been roughed up by the god Apollo.  Not especially impressive or awe-inspiring.  And with his last gasps of air, Patroclus says as much.

Another thing – I feel like Patroclus’s plan to fool people into thinking he is Achilles went out the window.  They are anxious at first when they see him coming, but after that no one seems to be fooled or surprised when he is not Achilles.

Patroclus does not keep his end of the promise to Achilles, and he continues pursuing Trojans after he has successfully defended the ships.  But it is not clear that this would have made much of a difference.  Or rather, it does not seem he really had a choice.  Zeus had pre-ordained this whole encounter to suit his greater purpose.

One last thing – maybe I pulled this interpretation out of thin air, but Patroclus did not strike me as particularly bloodthirsty, which makes this episode especially jarring.  He stood by his friend, he drank with Nestor, he treated wounded soldiers.  And suddenly… this.  But, I guess it was part of The Plan, so it could be no other way.

Stay tuned for Book 17 tomorrow!

-Lily