Pat n Chilles

18+ || The Iliad & Hades (video game) take up 80% of my brain space || Twitter: @room7632

[patnchilles]

Tragedy is Achilles causing the death of allies and enemies alike, and the ONLY time he prays to Zeus to let someone live, it's for his beloved Patroclus, and it wasn't granted

[patnchilles]

Art of Analepsis's modern AU by the same title

[patnchilles]

concept art for my modern university fic that you guys should read >:3c

[darlingsart]

Guy who hates everything but his man

[patnchilles]

so uhhh will people burn me at the stake if I write just the foreplay and not the actual sex scene asking for a friend

[patnchilles]

tiny doodle of my modern AU

[claireverlasting]

Pitiless man, your father was not Pēleus the horseman, nor was Thetis your mother: no, the grey sea bore you, and the towering rocks, for your mind is unchangeable!

[witchcraftandgeekness]

Patroclus being weak man in need of Achilles' protection must be the funniest misconception. In the Iliad, in his final battle he killed like approximately four dozen men (one of them a son of Zeus), tried climbing the Trojan war four times, stopped by Apollo, who popped up to tell him to quit that, then got divinely unarmored, his weapons shattered, got wounded by a spear (by a man too afraid of him, armorless and weaponless now, to finish him off) and THEN fatally wounded by Hector. That is not a man in need of anyone's protection, that is a beast

[purple--queen]

I think it is true love

[patnchilles]

University AU, now with fic! >:3c Pls go check it out & lmk your thoughts!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/85253281

[patnchilles]

My fave flavour of Iliad-inspired Patrochilles:

Older, gentle, & competent therapon Patroclus with Younger, serious, & devoted provider Achilles

[patnchilles]

"Aren't you overstating Patroclus's importance in the Iliad? He was just plot device for Achilles."

No, I'm not, and no, he was not. If you read closely you'll realize Patroclus didn't actually ask Achilles to rejoin the war. He supplicated with Achilles to lend him his armor so Patroclus could impersonate him on the battlefield.

I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me you believe Achilles would have agreed to this had literally anyone else asked him.

Read the Iliad and tell me to my face Achilles would have given this honor or trusted literally anyone else to do this.

Patroclus is central to the plot because he was the only warrior who had enough personal strength of character AND an exclusive bond to Achilles to stand in for him, fail at the task, and still contribute to both the tragedy and Achilles's character growth. The story isn't set up for anyone else to matter enough, in physical strength and in social standing vis-à-vis the hero, to accomplish both. Patroclus's importance can hardly be overstated.

[patnchilles]

Crimes committed against me, personally: the popularizing of the idea that Achilles dragged Hector's corpse around Troy a bunch of times

No he didn't. He dragged it in front of the walls of Troy once, immediately after his victory. Then it was around Patroclus's tomb three times a day.

The point wasn't to gloat about his victory, not after the first time. It was his way of trying to deal with his grief for the loss of Patroclus.

[patnchilles]

Based on my illustration designs for my Iliad blorbos...!

[bark-barkley]

sometimes the only explanation for what just happened is sex like it wasnt sex but narratively they just fucked we all saw it

[theodysseyofhomer]

odysseus absolutely does present a threat to penelope if he perceives her as at all unfaithful, and i feel the unfairness of this, and i think people tend to undersell how much tension at least potentially exists between odysseus and penelope. but i'm also like. his reaction, all speculation aside, his actual reaction in the odyssey to her flirting with the suitors is delight, because he immediately ascertains that she is running a con. sorry that they're so in-sync in spite of the forces that try to drive a wedge between them, including their own misgiving hearts. sorry that they invented homophrosyne ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[strinak]

oh, you meant they literally did, ok

[theodysseyofhomer]

would i, tumblr user thee odysseyofhomer, lie to you?

[polyphemusthecylcops]

...

[theodysseyofhomer]

this is the only funny addition to this post

[patnchilles]

I've never enjoyed portrayals of "woe is me I was abandoned and neglected by my own parents and cast away I'm so useless" Patroclus.

I think there's enough in the Iliad to suggest this isn't likely to be the case and reading it thus is either a deliberate choice to deviate from the source material or a gross misunderstanding of the context of the time. The first I have no problems with. The second I find myself more critical of.

In the Iliad, Menoetius was there when Achilles and Patroclus were called upon to war. Menoetius handed off his son the same way Peleus did Achilles.

In the Odyssey, after Odysseus and Telemachus kill the suitors, they must then deal with the fallout of what that means to their relationships with neighboring influential families, whose sons they just murdered, and who will likely come ask for compensation (or forcibly TAKE compensation, if they're strong enough to mount a resistance). Telemachus, famously, also kills a dozen female slaves... and has to worry about nothing on that front.

Combine these two facts and you get a very different picture of Patroclus's past. My suspicion has always been that Patroclus accidentally killing his playmate wasn't the problem, it's WHO THAT PLAYMATE'S PARENTS WERE in relation to Menoetius's land and power, that caused the trouble. Killing during this time period isn't problematic if you're the judge, jury, and executioner, at least until someone else of importance has a stake in proving you wrong. Had Patroclus's playmate just been some slave, his accidental murder wouldn't have mattered in the least.

Menoetius probably could have had Patroclus killed to compensate Amphidamas, a life for a life, a son for a son. But he chose instead to exile him to Peleus, which strips him of his princehood but preserves his life (and therefore his chance of distinguishing himself in the future). There, Patroclus does indeed live up to his father's hopes, distinguishing himself enough to be chosen as Achilles's therapon. Given these were times where warriors were glorified, I wouldn't even be surprised if Patroclus's history of violence was seen positively: he has the guts to grow into a fighter and just needs to channel that energy more strategically. I can certainly see a young Achilles thinking Patroclus, who was older and courageous, was so cool.