SUMMARY OF THE ILIAD BOOK 16 PAGE 1 At the start of Book 16, the wish of Achilles has been granted

by Zeus and the Trojans have the upper hand in the war. In fact they have driven back the Achaeans to their ships and many of the great warriors on the Greek side are now wounded. Patroclus, Achilles' friend and squire, approaches Achilles in distress, the tears pouring down his face like a waterfall down a cliff. Achilles tells him that he is like a little girl at her mother's skirts begging to be carried and asks what has him in this condition. He wonders if either of their fathers are dead. Patroclus tells him the terrible news about the fighting and says that Achilles cannot be the son of a goddess as he is so cold-hearted to allow this to happen and to stand by and do nothing about it. He implies that Achilles is not fighting because of some prophecy he has heard concerning the battle. He asks Achilles to lend him his armour and to allow him to lead the Myrmidons into battle to relieve the Argives. Achilles is raging at the hint that he might be avoiding battle to save himself and he denies knowing of any prophecy. The only reason he will not fight is because of the insult of Agamemnon's treatment. However he sees that the Trojans cannot be allowed to burn the Greek ships, this would be a disaster. He grants Patroclus his requests but tells him not to follow up any victory. He is just to drive the Trojans back from the ships and then turn back. Achilles does not want to be cheapened by Patroclus doing too well. Also he does not want his friend to be injured or killed by some god. He wishes that all the Greeks and Trojans were dead and that only he and Patroclus were left to pull down the city walls. Meanwhile on the battlefield, Aias is overcome and backs down before Hector. The ships are set alight and as Patroclus puts on Achilles' magnificent armour, Achilles goes around gathering the savage Myrmidons, reminding them of how they longed to go into battle and had complained about him keeping them from the fight. The Myrmidons fall in like savage wolves that have killed a stag at a mountain stream and are belching gore, lapping water and are still fierce although they have killed. They stand like blocks in a wall close together as they listen to Achilles encouraging them to fight well. Patroclus chooses Automedon as his charioteer and they set off with the Myrmidons like a horde of wasps disturbed from their nest at the side of

a road. Meanwhile Achilles takes out his gold cup and makes a libation to Zeus, asking him to let Patroclus drive the Trojans back from the ships and to allow him to come back safely. Zeus granted him half of his prayer.

SUMMARY OF THE ILIAD BOOK 16 PAGE 2 The Myrmidons fell on the Trojans, and the Achaean war-cry sounded everywhere. When the Trojans saw the sight of Achilles' armour, their hearts sank. They thought that Achilles was back in the war. They all suddenly looked to escape death. They started to retreat leaving Protesilaus's ship half-burnt. The Danaans cleared the Trojans away like Zeus lifting a stormcloud. But this was not yet a rout. The Myrmidons picked off the Trojan heroes with savage fighting and many of them died. (See separate handout for Homer's description of war). It was like wolves slaughtering lambs. By now the Trojans were running to save their lives. Patroclus killed all around him but it was Hector that he longed to kill. The noise from the Trojan flight was like a massive torrential flood. When Sarpedon saw how his Lycians were falling to Patroclus and running away, he called out to them and said they should be ashamed of themselves for retreating with such "admirable speed". He jumped down from his chariot and faces Patroclus, they are like two vultures on a clifftop. Zeus is distressed as he looks down and wonders about whether or not to save his son Sarpedon, king of the Lycians. Hera was appalled at this idea. She points out that it is not right to save a man whose fate is decided already. Also she says that many of the gods have sons in the war and they cannot all intervene. She said the best thing to do is to allow Sarpedon to die in combat and when he is dead to whisk him off to Lycia for a proper funeral and burial. Zeus agreed with this. But he sent down a shower of bloody raindrops as a sign of his sadness. Patroclus is first of the two heroes to cast his spear. He gets Sarpedon's squire in the stomach and kills him. Then Sarpedon casts and gets one of Patroclus's horses on the shoulder and kills him. Automedon manages to free the remaining horses. Sarpedon casts a second time but misses. Patroclus's second cast hits Sarpedon just under his heart and he falls like a

mighty oak or pine tree in the forest. Like a proud bull brought down by a lion he dies defiantly. As he dies, he calls out to his friend Glaucus and asks him to defend his body from being despoiled by the Greeks. Glaucus is in distress because he is helpless. His arm is wounded, painful, weak and bleeding. He prays to Apollo to help and Apollo hears his prayer. Glaucus rejoices as he feels the pain ease and he rallies the Lycians and the Trojans to fight around the body of Sarpedon. All are infuriated at Sarpedon's death. Each side fights over his body like flies in summer around a milk-pail. Many died on each side. Aeneas the Trojan and Meriones the Myrmidon have a shouting match when Aeneas misses Meriones with a spear-cast and says "You may be a fine dancer but my spear would have stopped you for good and all if I had hit you". Meriones jeers at this but Patroclus tells him to stop talking and fight instead. The Achaeaens get Sarpedon's armour, but not his body. Zeus sends Apollo down to snatch him away, annoint him with ambrosia, wrap him in a robe and bring him to Lycia. Meanwhile Patroclus makes a bad mistake, Zeus makes him overbold. Instead of doing as Achilles had told him, he followed up his success towards the walls of Troy. The Achaean onslaught was so fierce that even Hector eventually retreated. He saw that the gods were against them for the moment. In the end the Greeks got the armour of Sarpedon, son of Zeus, but Apollo was sent down to fetch his body and to bear it off to Lycia for proper burial. Meanwhile Patroclus spurred on the Myrmidons to follow the Trojans, made over-brave by the gods. He killed many men and three times tried to scale the angled walls of the city, but each time he was hurled off by Apollo who, the fourth time, stopped him with a shout, telling him that neither he nor Achilles were destined to capture the city of Troy. At that Patroclus withdrew. Now Hector had pulled up near the Scaean Gate and was approached by Apollo, disguised as his uncle. He spurs him on to chase Patroclus and find glory. When Patroclus saw Hector approaching, he threw a rock and hit Hector's charioteer, Cebriones, shattering his eyebrows and his eyes rolled out on the ground as he fell from the chariot like a diver. Patroclus jeered at him for being such a good diver. The two heroes fought over the body like lions over a stag. There was a huge tussle like winds in the treetops. Finally the Achaeans got the armour from the back of Cebriones. But as Patroclus hurled himself into the battle, Apollo approached him wrapped in a mist and struck him with his hand

in the back. His helmet fell off, his armour loosened, his shield fell and his spear shattered. He was stunned and tried to slink off in a daze, but now the young Euphorbus in his first battle struck him between the shoulder-blades with his spear. Patroclus now tried to get away but Hector saw him. He ran towards him and got him in the lower part of the belly with his spear. Patroclus fell with a thud like a wild boar felled by a lion at a mountain stream. Hector spoke to him saying that he was a fool to think he would sack Troy. He imagines (wrongly) that Achilles urged him on to kill Hector. Patroclus, dying, replies that Hector managed to beat him only with the help of Apollo. He says that it was destiny that killed him. He predicts that Hector's own death is not far off at the hands of Achilles. Then he dies. Hector goes on talking to him and says that perhaps Achilles will die at his own hands instead. Then he pulled the spear out of Patroclus's stomach and chased Automedon who has fled.