Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE ILIAD: BOOK 16. ACHILLES AND PATROCLUS, by HOMER


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THE ILIAD: BOOK 16. ACHILLES AND PATROCLUS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: So round that sturdy ship the battle raged
Last Line: Dark death and fate.
Subject(s): Mythology - Classical; Trojan War


SO round that sturdy ship the battle raged.
But to Achilles, shepherd of the host,
Patroclus came, and like a sunless spring
That spills its sombre stream down a steep rock
He wept hot tears. And at the sight of him
Divine swift-foot Achilles had compassion,
And spoke and said to him with winged words:
'Why all in tears, Patroclus, like a child,
A baby girl, who trots beside her mother
And begs to be picked up, and plucks her skirt,
And drags upon her movements, gazing up
All tears, until her mother takes her up?
Thy tears, Patroclus, are as round as hers!
Hast thou bad news to tell the Myrmidons,
Or me myself, or can it be thou hast
Private intelligence from Phthia? They say
That Actor's son Menoetius still lives;
Still Peleus, son of AEacus, is living
Among the Myrmidons; for both of whom,
So they were dead, we might be grieved indeed.
Or art thou troubled for the Greeks, to see
How they are perishing by the hollow ships
Thanks to their own transgression? Speak, nor hide it
Within thy mind, so that we both may know.'
With a deep groan the knight Patroclus said:
'Achilles, son of Peleus, far the best
Of all the Achaeans, do not blame me; for
Such great misfortune has o'erwhelmed the Achaeans.
In fact all those that were of old the best
Are lying, shot or stabbed, aboard the ships.
Stricken is Tydeus' son, strong Diomed,
Odysseus, famous with the spear, is stabbed,
And Agamemnon; and Eurypylus
Has had his thigh shot through. And busy round them
Are surgeons with their herbs to heal their wounds;
But nothing can be done with thee, Achilles!
Now God deliver me from the grip of anger
Such as thou nursest, vicious-valiant man!
What profit shall posterity have of thee,
Unless thou save the Argives from foul harm?
So then thy father was not knightly Peleus,
Nor Thetis was thy mother! iron heart,
Grey sea and beetling rocks begot thee, that
Thy soul is so unbending. But if thou
Art thinking to avoid some oracle,
Some premonition which thy goddess mother
Hath given thee from Zeus, then send me out
And with me all the corps of Myrmidons
At once, if I perchance may prove a light
Unto the Danai. Give me thine own gear
To buckle on my shoulders; it may be
That, taking me for thee, the Trojans will
Desist from war and give a breathing-time
To our brave wearied sons of the Achaeans;
For battle grants men little time for breath:
Then we fresh men should easily repel
Foes spent with fighting from the ships and huts
Back to the city.'
So in his folly he besought him, for
The thing he prayed for was to be his own
Dark death and fate.





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