i'm reading this paper on supplication (particularly in homer) by john gould and although he only touches on this in a footnote it's about achilles and lycaon's meeting in the iliad so of course it's got my ears perking up like a retriever's
gould lays out the xenia process of an outsider going from xenos (stranger) -> xenos (guest) -> philos (friend), using odysseus in alcinous' court as an example. then he touches on how lycaon pleads with achilles to spare him by reminding him of when he was achilles' captive and they ate bread together, and gould points out:
Note that though Achilles does not accept Lykaon's supplication, he nevertheless addresses him as philos (II. xxi 106) after being reminded of the common meal.
ie this bit that always sends chills down my spine:
"Come, friend, you too must die. Why moan about it so?
Even Patroclus died; a far, far better man than you."
before killing lycaon who's still unarmed and on his knees.
gould's perspective makes it even creepier! the thought of achilles acknowledging the rules of xenia even in a captor/captive dynamic, respectfully addressing him as a friend, and then very deliberately disregarding those rules because he can't suffer a (half) brother of hector to live. oooh the texture
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