The Reaction of Achilles (upon hearing the news of Patroclus' death), an Iliad analysis
So if you remember my old post about the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus, which you can find here, I have commented upon the fact that his reaction on the news of the death of his companion even before he got the actual body, can be potentially much more ominous than what people think
I am pretty sure that most of you came in contact with interpretations before such as Achilles collapsing on the ground screaming his lungs out (and for a good reason given that many remember how his mother has heard him scream and arrived with her entourage to see what is going on), or the reaction you get to imagine from popular retellings either before or after the arrival of the body with Achilles reacting vocally or verbally almost immediately. The moment, particularly that first scenario has been done before even by comics which seems sped up due to the lack of framing or potentially the feeling of inability to capture such an intense expression of pain on paper.
All of the above is understandable.
However allow me to say that this is not entirely the case and that the real thing can be more ominous than what people think!
Therefore I thought it would be useful to make a separate post about this in a full analysis on a step by step build up till the climax of it.
->The Anticipation
While they were fighting like raging fire for the body, Antilochus ran with his fast feet to Achilles to tell him the news. He found him before the upright like horn ships, already considering in his mind what had already happened. Vexed as he was he was saying in his brave heart:
(Translation by me)
Achilles was already sitting before the ships and he was already perplexed and vexed. He was already sensing what Antilochus had come to tell him. He seemed already fearing or daresay aware of the result. He was sitting there in silence. Homer mentions to us how he was "thinking in his heart" or better "spoke mentally to himself" (εἶπε πρὸς ὃν μεγαλήτορα θυμόν) He doesn't dare to speak. He "speaks" mentally. In his heart. He is silent, silent in anticipation and agony. One can feel his heart already jumping in fear. His fears are double confirmed when he sees Antilochus run on his own. He can tell by the body language that the news are not good. And yet his thoughts are not yet certain. In fact there is some hidden hope in him:
Oh no! What happened now that drives the long-haired Achaeans back towards the ships, so distraught by fear within the plain? Let it be not that the gods have more woes for my soul just like my mother predicted for me and she had told me that while I was still alive the best of Myrmidons would die at the hands of the Trojans! Or worse what if the noble son of Menoetios is dead! The reckless fool! But surely I had ordered him to come back to the ships after he had repelled the fire of battle and not rush to fight with Hector!
(Translation by me)
Achilles is contemplating the worst! He knows deep down that this is what happened! In fact even now he half-prays that this is not what he fears. He even remembers his mother's words that "the best of Myrmidons" would die while he was still alive (in fact the word "to die" is given in a very poetic way by Homer by using the words "will lose the light of the sun" -> λείψειν φάος ἠελίοιο). Every inch of his body knows this to be true and yet he still hopes that this is not so! He still hopes it is all a wrong assumption!
-> Hope Shattered
He was thinking thus over and over in his mind and in his soul but then came close to him the son of peerless Nestor, pouring hot tears and he brought the terrible news
"Oh I am so sorry, son of Peleus the great warrior, that I have to bring you such terrible news, so terrible as I would never will! Patroclus is dead! Over his body the two sides are fighting and he is naked, for his arms Hector of shining helm has taken!"
(Translation by me)
No matter how much Achilles tries to make himself believe otherwise, hope is shattered from moment one when he sees the tears of Antilochus (δάκρυα θερμὰ χέων) and it certainly is turned to dust when he hears the terrible news and one is more terrible than the other.
Patroclus is dead (in the text "lies down" or "is on the ground" or more simply "has fallen" κεῖται)
They don't have his body yet for both sides are fighting still (νέκυος δὲ δὴ ἀμφιμάχονται)
He is naked (νέκυος γυμνοῦ) and therefore dishonored
The facts are given climatically, one might say with increased severity. Not only is Patroclus dead (Achilles' worst nightmare), they also have not yet secured his body (Achilles cannot even be certain he can offer him a funeral) but he is also stripped naked from the armor (his body has been partially dishonored for the armor of the warrior was stripped off him).
-> Shock and Silence
One should notice that the most natural reaction is not vocal in these cases but rather silence and total shock. Because that was what happened to Achilles that very moment. He practically collapses! And if you remember from my other post the reaction is rather heartbreaking!
So they spoke and black mist of distress covered him: With both his hands he gathered smoky sand and he poured it over his head and disfigured his face: his nectarous chiton turned black with ashes. And he himself dropped in the dirt and stretched over pulling out his hair in lament with his hands for his beloved. The slaves given as war price to Achilles and Patroclus, released a great cry of sadness and they approached all to the sides of mourning Achilles, beating their chests with their hands, and their knees each. Also Antilochus with them was lamenting and pouring tears holding the hands of Achilles: for he was moaning with his noble heart: worried that he would cut his throat with iron (here: a knife).
(Translation by me)
[See also my other analysis post for the same passage]
Of course people are more or less familiar with it but as I mention to my other post, I want you to pay attention to the events one by one:
Distress covers him like a shadow (ἄχεος νεφέλη ἐκάλυψε μέλαινα).
His face immediately darkens with this sorrow! The shattered hope that I mentioned above is being presented in the grimmest way possible by Homer!
Gathers sand and ash with his hands and pours it all over himself (ἑλὼν κόνιν αἰθαλόεσσαν χεύατο κὰκ κεφαλῆς)
He scratches his cheeks with his hands (χαρίεν δ᾽ ᾔσχυνε πρόσωπον)
He falls on the ground (αὐτὸς δ᾽ ἐν κονίῃσι μέγας μεγαλωστὶ τανυσθεὶς κεῖτο)
Pulls his hair out (χερσὶ κόμην ᾔσχυνε δαΐζων)
Notice what misses from the passage so far?
The sound!
Not even once in all these actions that Achilles performs in his ultimate pain and distress do we hear a sound mark by Homer. There is not even one single mention to sound so far. In fact the first sound mark of the passage happens after the slave women come out of the tent and only then we get the first sound mark. And guess what.
It is not a scream!
Not yet. Achilles is in such a state of grief and shock that he hasn't screamed yet! There is one sound mark that we see and that is a groan or a moan of pain! ὃ δ᾽ ἔστενε κυδάλιμον κῆρ says Homer "he was groaning with his noble heart" or even better "he was groaning his heart out".
Throughout the passage Achilles barely mentions anything but action but after a little while we do hear the first sound reference in the text, which is a sound of a groan rather than a scream. Do you know what this means?
=> Achilles just poured ashes over himself, scratched his face, totally changed in his pain in a matter of seconds and eventually dropped himself on his knees and on the ground; WITHOUT MAKING A SOUND AT ALL OR BARELY ANY! <=
That in my mind is even more ominous than Achilles scream right away! You can see the shock, the pain striking him straight in his heart and he can't even find the voice, just like when someone punches you in the stomach! He makes no sound and barely groans just like someone has been striken down senseless in a matter of seconds!
You can imagine him almost tremble all over, barely breathing as if he cannot draw breath anymore, hands over his face or in his hair literally pulling it out in his silent pain!
The scene is so disturbing that Antilochus holds his hand because he fears (δείδιε) that Achilles might cut his own throat (μὴ λαιμὸν ἀπαμήσειε) with his dagger! Notice how Achilles is in such a state of shock that he can't even do that technically! Antilochus is holding his hands (χεῖρας ἔχων Ἀχιλῆος) but the verb "fear" over something like "preventing" or "stopping" shows that Achilles has not made any such move yet but he seems perfectly capable of! Antilochus and the women are in fact the only people in the scene that are making any actual or louder sounds:
ἀκηχέμεναι μεγάλ᾽ ἴαχον ("screaming loudly in pain") -> the slave women
ὀδύρετο δάκρυα λείβων ("lamenting and shedding tears") -> Antilochus
Achilles' pain is among them so intense because so far it is the most silent of all! All the others are wailing or crying around him and yet Achilles feels as if he is barely making any dead sounds!
-> And Then the Explosion
Amidst all this lament, Achilles finally finds his voice as if all the breath he tried to draw finally settled in his lungs and finally his pain that was making his heart pump up as if ready to burst, now finally is released:
He cried out woefully: and his noble mother heard him where she was within the deep sea by her old father's side, and immediately released a shriek and all the divine Neriads living deep into the sea gathered around her.
(Translation by me)
Finally Achilles releases his great cry of pain and distress (σμερδαλέον δ᾽ ᾤμωξεν) and NOW is the moment that his mother hears him even from the depths of the sea! And as if on a queue she also screams back in equal distress for her son's unimaginable pain (κώκυσέν). His voice was heard so deep that his mother heard him in the sea and not only that, she called out in return hearing the ultimate pain in her son's voice! It is NOW that the infamous cry of pain happened!
It was the climax of a silent, intense scene...not the entirety of it! This is why it is so disturbing and powerful!
Conclusions:
Although I do understand completely people connecting the ultimate pain with an immediate cry or screaming, in reality the ultimate expression of pain is silence. When the greatest pain strikes you, you are left unable to react! You might freeze or find yourself unable to breathe! The true reaction happens after a while
The cry of Achilles was not the full scene, it was the climax!
Which is also why, in my opinion, the rest of the scene is much more disturbing and much more ominous, showing the descend of Achilles towards madness. And the scene was heavily implied from the beginning, given how Achilles started in silence and ended in his cry. His silence came from anticipation, from piled up worry and finally that piled up worry but also hidden hope hit him in the stomach and he could not react but with his body. His voice followed.
But what do you guys think? Let me know ^_^
~*~*~*~
Some of my other Achilles-related Analysis and thoughts:
Achilles being on the edge
The importance of silence (thanks to @deadbaguette)
Achilles personality from his upbringing
Achilles in Statius 1
Achilles in Statius 2
Achilles mourning at the pyre
Achilles pyrrhic dance
On Achilles' death and Achilles' Tendon
"Devil's Advocate" on Achilles (thanks to @justvea18)
My Photos from the statue of Dying Achilles from the Achillion in Corfu:
💬 13 🔁 13 ❤️ 60 · Some images from Achillion in Kerkyra from my time when I went there in the recent past (the restoration of the statues
Question: could you please provide a list with all of achilles romantic interests? I know about briseis deidamia patroclus( medea possibly)
Oh boy all of them? Hahaha well that will be hard to do with absolute certainty but here goes;
Women:
(more clearly stated in sources that he either has feelings for or he simply desires)
Briseis: Spoil of war but also many times mentioned as his love interest by Achilles himself
Deidamia: daughter of Lycomedes according to sources like Statius she was the first time Achilles encounters lust with her and also romantic love for a woman
Iphigenia: In Euripides Achilles expresses his love for Iphigenia for her bravery and expresses his jealousy towards Greece for having her
Medea: his heavenly wife according to Apollodorous in Elysium
Helen: according to some sources Achilles either dreams of her in some sort of wet dream or he sees her on the balcony and is taken over by lust for her
Polyxena: the daughter of Priam sparked love and interest to Achilles and in some sources she was the source of his doom or in others she was the concubine he chose for his afterlife so demanding her sacrifice to him
Penthesilea: queen of the Amazons killed by him. Achilles falls in love with her a little after she dies when he sees her face under the helmet
Diomeda: spoil of war. Not ever stated that he has love interest in her or just pure lust but mentioned in Homer as a bed mate of his
Men:
(Male love interests are more nuanced in the sources and many of them are up for interpretation of the text)
Patroclus: Arguably the best known example from post-homeric sources and philosophers
Antilochus: son of Nestor mentioned in the Odyssey to be his second favorite after Patroclus. buried in the same tomb but ultimately not the same urn
Troilus: Achilles is taken over by lust for Troilus and even attempts to rape him (but this is probably attributed to much later sources)
Palamedes and Protesilaus: not really love interests per se but both of these figures have been described very close to Achilles in later sources
Honestly these are the love interests of his that come to my mind currently based on the epic cycle. Not sure if I forget anyone. The sources are much more obvious to his female love interests while there is a certain ambiguity with his male ones but ultimately I love to think of the potential of many of them
Am i misremembering or is Achilles not miserable in the afterlife, with Patroclus? Atleast in the odyssey. He regrets going on his rampage and wants to be alive again. Because if that is the case I don’t see where people get the Idea that Patroclus was Achilles’ everything.
I mean he was. One is not mutually exclusive of the other.
Achilles in the Odyssey is miserable because he is dead because death is a miserable matter. Homer shows the dark side of death and of how people get lost to the darkness of the underworld. That of course is also placed there because his hero, Odysseus, is someone that does everything he can to stay alive no matter what. Also in my opinion makes his decision to reject immortality even more powerful, as I have once commented at an old post of mine:
💬 29 🔁 123 ❤️ 567 · I don't think people realize how powerful the notion is that Odysseus rejected immortality from Calypso and what that
the depiction of the Underworld as the worst place someone can be at is arguably one of the key factors to show both Odysseus's resolve to stay alive no matter what or trying his best to save his men but also to show what Odysseus gave up in order to return home.
But let's just leave that and go back to Achilles. I do not think that the notion is to show Achilles regretting joining Patroclus in death but rather Achilles regretting choosing death in the first place. We know he had two fates before him; fast death and eternal glory or a long good life and no glory. Achilles had clearly made a choice for the first one. Now he seems to regret that given that he sees the vast darkness of the underworld and basically thinks:
"If only I had decided to take my ships and go back home that day!"
or
"If only I was never there in the first place!"
the way that he sees now the price his glory needed to be paid with, he sees it as the wrong decision at least emotionally. It is also the messaging that Odysseus project; Kleos/glory is good and satisfactory but sometimes the price is too great and makes the result less worth it than the thought initially was. Similarly to how Odysseus himself wanted to be heard. He bragged his win to Polyphemus and he pays the price to that moment.
Similarly Achilles sees now the price he paid for Glory and he is not happy with it because death is miserable.
Number two; Patroclus was his everything and his top priority for sure but that doesn't mean he was the only one either. I mean Achilles is not even in the underworld just with Patroclus. He is also with Antilochus. The three of them seem to be together in the same place.
Other myths also give Achilles a heavenly wife to the afterlife, Medea.
Neither of these facts is to diminish his relationship with Patroclus as someone that was of outpost importance to him. However it shows that there are other bonds too that matter similarly.
Number three; let's hypothesize that Achilles "regrets following Patroclus in death so quickly" for one minute. For once no one disagrees at the deep depression he was in when his companion died. He literally saw the world black without him and he basically drove himself to rage and eventually to death.
However that doesn't mean that someone cannot regret their emotions' intensity or the rush decision they make.
Supposed that your best friend could have been hit by a car. Your first instinct is to rush to the middle of the street and push him out of the way. The car hits you. You end up becoming quadriplegic and you cannot move your body anymore. You need constant care.
Do you regret your friend is alive?
Hell no
However you still regret your decision to act out of instinct or you feel depressed at your current condition not to be able to move and needing care constantly, not be able to do what you used to etc
Another example is that someone needs an immediate transplant. If you do not give your friend that, they are gonna die. Without a second thought you step forward. You are a match. You donate. However perhaps the procedure leaves you with some disfigurement or perhaps there are complications and infections that drive you almost to the grave and you have scars or reminders or even worse coming to you
You regret saving them?
No but you do mourn your previous heath and strength that you lost in the process or the beauty you lost in the process. You still are happy the person lives and you will be eternally grateful but at the same time you can mourn for something that used to be yours and now it isn't
etc. I do not think Achilles regretting dying or arriving to the underworld so soon after Patroclus is some proof that he didn't care. Maybe in the back of his brain he is like "what if I loved him and remembered him alive? What if I walked the earth and lived with his memory?"
Would that reasoning appear selfish or less idealistic? Perhaps but in my opinion is deeply human.
Achilles regretting dying is not necessarily a proof that "he didn't care as much as we thought" to me. Is a human side of his more realistic that still cares but also mourns his current situation that is irreversible
Like I am sure you do not need some kind of double suicide in real life to see two people loving each other even if such tragedy brings out the romanticism of people. Most people encourage their own who lost someone they loved to keep going and remember them because life goes on for everyone. Similarly I think it is unfair to judge Achilles's emotions solely because he regretted dying young after Patroclus. I mean if anything it shows how hopeless it was. Achilles would die anyway. Whether that was young and glorious or old and insignificant he would die anyways and he would meet Patroclus anyways. Him mourning his lost youth seems rather realistic in this context
Hope that helps
Okay to give someone, that hasn't read the Iliad yet, a tiny fracture of how Achilles's rage was in the Iliad I would probably cite Neitiri's revenge scene
Okay a small parenthesis here I have had plenty of issues with some of the cinematography trope and I cringed a bit at some things such as the constant grunting, huffing and puffing and all in this movie because it felt like James Cameron wanted to show that "look! She is furious" and in my opinion that was a bit off because he overplayed it
However that being said I try to see it through a different lens perhaps than what James Cameron originally intended.
I see it through the lens of madness
Someone coming undone, someone losing every sense of logic fight or any other that he learnt. Someone who makes himself a target at this point because his brain has totally shut off reality
So this is where Achilles comes in
Achilles after he got out of the tent where he spent his days hugging the corpse of Patroclus, is probably at the state of amok as he enters the battle again. He has died inside. Everything that made him a warrior has totally disappeared; he is out there for the slaughter now.
And the reason why I thought James Cameron didn't want us to think Neitiri as mentally unstable at that moment due to her grief was the deleating of the scene where she stabs repeatedly and without any sense of logic the last two kills of hers:
However that is a fracture (and I say "fracture" because I doubt anything can truly portray him as he was at that moment!) of how I imagined Achilles to look like in the battlefield.
He is coming undone
All his previous grace that made him seem almost dancing in the battlefield getting lost to moves of brutality and slaughter
He is constantly doing moves that are not needed such as hasty and repeated stabs or enraged mistakes that he immediately corrects even more brutally
Constant huffing and puffing, grunts and roars that make him actually waste breath and air and make him a constant target
Potentially damaging his equipment in his rage (daresay even break or crack his heirloom spear)
Because he no longer cares. He cannot think logically anymore.
And it is THIS Achilles that Hector saw and made him turn the heel and run
It wasn't Achilles the warrior
But Achilles the animal in rampage; the mask of insanity
The beginning of the end
And surely we expect something similar to have happened to Achilles when he lost Antilochus too before taken down by Paris
OK follow up to my previous as--is Antilochus described at all in the Illiad? I'm desperate lol
Not much on him either. We do get to see he is a really swift and good fighter, potentially fast runner and very durable too judging that he ran all the way back to the Greek camp to inform Achilles on the death of Patroclus and all. But we do not have much on Antilochus per se.
Once again you can return to the Nestor description.
However I have been drawing Antilochus for some time now hahaha
💬 24 🔁 21 ❤️ 48 · Honorable Antilochus
Yes I guess I couldn't help myself and I just HAD to draw Antilochus too! Thanks to some AMAZING r
This sketch has been inspired by the vase painting that oftentimes is interpreted as "Antilochus"
In this painting he is depicted as a youth with long wavy hair (I believe we can assume he has his hair thug under the helmet or held together with the headband we see oftentimes in heroes)
I have also been drawing him with Achilles:
💬 13 🔁 4 ❤️ 19 · Achilles x Antilochus (Achillochus) Fanart
Soooo since I do not see many draw these two together I thought I should! 🤔 s
💬 8 🔁 9 ❤️ 11 · The death of Antilochus
So my late Valentine's Day image is a sad one! I know I am perfectly normal for those! Hehehe so
I also included him at a collage with Patroclus:
💬 16 🔁 8 ❤️ 43 · The one that tried to heal him and the one that tried to protect him... · Okay a small collage again from two of the most
Another rare depiction that I plan on publishing soon is this:
where again he wears a petassos hat and you can see his wavy hair under it
So my late Valentine's Day image is a sad one! I know I am perfectly normal for those! Hehehe so yeah I got inspired suddenly at over three in the night by Van Helsing's pose in the early 2000s movie and wanted to draw Achilles mourning for Antilochus
I know it is a very quick sketch and I am so sorry for the quality! So in my mind this takes place after Achilles has slain Memnon and he now goes to mourn for the last companion he loses.
I wanted them both to have bronze armors on. Achilles probably threw away the arms and the helmet to embrace Antilochus (probably Nestor would back down from his son for a second seeing the condition Achilles was in)
As you know Antilochus design is based on the classical vase art and I have my artwork here
thanks for the antilochus posts. there was like one person who posted about antilochus (i mean in the sense of talking about it with some consistency ofc people have mentioned him but usually only 1 or 2 posts). when you started posting too there were 2 people! ik it's still not much but hey…now i have two people i follow for antilochus content! really thx!
No problem I am actually posting apart from my artwork on Antilochus:
Honorable Antilochus
Yes I guess I couldn't help myself and I just HAD to draw Antilochus too! Thanks to some AMAZING reblogs and comments
And my collage with Patroclus as well
Okay a small collage again from two of the most tragic figures in Epic Cycle that are arguably connected to one other tragic figure of the E
I am also writing a series of one-shots involving his relationship with Achiles (and come up with the ship name Achillochus for it) which you can find both in my Tumblr page:
The Lament of a Life (Achilles and Antilochus short songfic)
If someone asks me how the lament of Achilles looks like my answer would be th
What makes the Heart Beat (An Achilles and Antilochus one-shot)
Somehow a sequel to this:
The Lament of a Life (Achilles and Antilochus sh
"Achilles!"
The young man looked down from the tree where he had sought shelter on. He liked being up there; making others worry a bit. The
I am also posting it to my AO3 account here under the title "Lament and War"
If you are interested!
I think that Antilochus is a very interesting character and has an important role and I am sad that it is not explored properly
