The Chief Olympian Youth In Homer's The Iliad

Only the Good Die Young
In The Iliad, translated by Richmond Lattimore, Homer depicts many gruesome deaths which take place during the Trojan War. One of the most significant and memorable deaths in this epic is the death of Patroklos. Homer presents his audience with a very interesting situation regrading who is really at fault for Patroklos’ death. There are multiple people that could be responsible for his fatality. Although he was physically killed by Apollo, Euphorbus, and Hektor; Homer leaves us contemplating the person truly held accountable. Was it Zeus? He is the Chief Olympian god who can control any mortal’s fate. Was it Achilleus? He allowed Patroklos to go out into battle wearing his own armor because he was too proud to go out

Patroklos was enraged and kills many men including Sarpedon. His bravery and arrogance, however, began to get the best of him. Here, Patroklos lets Kleos get in the way of his thinking. He wanted to be a hero, and he became blinded by the thoughts of Kleos and Gera. Although Kleos and Gera is the driving force behind many men in the war, Patroklos let it cloud all of his thoughts and became careless. He believed he could receive the glory of fending off the Trojans in Achilleus’ armor. In reality, neither of them really deserved glory. Patroklos was hiding behind the armor of Achilleus, and Achilleus was just hiding. Once Patroklos got out on the forefront of the battlefield, he became overconfident when he saw the fear in the eyes of the Trojans at the sight of Achilleus’ armor. When the Trojans saw Patroklos “the heart was stirred in all of them, the battalions were shaken” (XVI.280). This made Patroklos feel good about himself and gave him the self-assurance to attack the Trojans. His self-assurance quickly turned into arrogant pride. Patroklos had always been the level-headed warrior, but now he was becoming out of control. Despite what Achilleus had told him, Patroklos decided he wanted to storm the wall of Troy anyway. Patroklos could not even recognize his own frailty anymore. He thought he was invincible in Achilleus’ armor. This major character flaw begins to unravel the

This began to make Phoibos Apollo angry. Achilleus had warned Patroklos about the gods being on the side of Trojans. It was not Patroklos’ destiny to defeat the Trojans. Patroklos tried to get over the wall three times, and three times Apollo beat him back down the wall. Patroklos kept trying for the fourth time, then Apollo warned Patroklos of his death if he continued. “’Give way, illustrious Patroklos: it is not destined / that the city of the proud Trojans shall fall before your spear / nor even at the hand of Achilleus, who is far better than you are” (XVI.707-709). This was Patroklos second warning. This should have shown Patroklos that this was not his battle to be fighting. Achilleus should have been the one on the front line fighting off the Trojans in his armor, not Patroklos. Since Achilleus was being a coward, Patroklos had to make up for it with his bravery. Patroklos, however, became too confident when he went out in Achilleus’ armor. He felt like he could do anything Achilleus could do, but Patroklos was not as great of a warrior as Achilleus. Even though Apollo reminded Patroklos that he was not a great warrior like Achilleus, he continued to go blood-crazy. At this point, Patroklos could have just left, went home, and called it a day. He had done his job by driving the Trojans away from the Achaian ships, but Patroklos’ naivety made him forget what he was actually there to do. His killing grew more reckless. Patroklos