Black Ships Before Troy

When Achilles learns of Patroclus’s death, he falls headfirst into the ashes of the hearth, covering the god-given brightness of his hair. He goes wild with grief and attempts to join the battle without armor. His mother, Thetis, comforts him and promises that she will bring him armor made by Hephaestus himself the next day. Achilles climbs the rampart unarmored and screams three times. The Trojans see and hear him; they are scared back, and the Myrmidons rescue Patroclus’s body from them.

Achilles weeps over Patroclus’s body along with the enslaved women, to whom Patroclus had been kind. They ready Patroclus for the pyre. Meanwhile, Hector refuses to bring his men back inside the walls of Troy; he knows Achilles will be coming and wants to meet him on the plain. The next morning, Achilles puts on the new gleaming armor Thetis has brought and wants to fight immediately. Odysseus calms him: First, they must sacrifice to the gods and Achilles needs to settle with Agamemnon. Achilles does not want anything that Agamemnon has promised him but agrees nonetheless; he does not plan to live past his slaying of Hector.