Enlarge Achilles bandages the arm of his friend Patroclus. The latter turns his head aside to avoid the sight of blood and of Achilles noticing his pain grimaces. The scene has been interpreted as an act of welfare and comradeship, or as a scene with sexual overtones. Ancient Greek culture often held the two to be lovers.

The relationship between Achilles and Patroclus is a key element of the myths associated with the Trojan War, and has been the subject of some dispute in both the classical period and modern times. In the Iliad, it is clear that the two heroes have a deep and extremely meaningful friendship, but the evidence of a romantic or sexual element is equivocal. Commentators from the classical period to today have tended to interpret the relationship through the lens of their own cultures. Thus, in fifth-century Athens the relationship was commonly interpreted as pederastic. Contemporary readers are more likely to interpret the two heroes either as non-sexual "war buddies" or as an egalitarian homosexual couple. Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The wrath of Achilles, by Léon Benouville In Greek mythology, , transliterated to Akhilleus or Achilause in Roman letters, Latinized from this ancient Greek to Achilles, appearing in Etruscan as Achle, was a hero (ancient Greek heros, defender) of the Trojan War, the greatest and the most central character of... A cup depicting Achilles bandaging Patroklos arm, by Sosias. ... The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Achaeans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. ... The Iliad (Ancient Greek: Ιλιάς, Iliás) tells part of the story of the siege of the city of Ilium, i. ... Pederasty as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. ... Homosexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by esthetic attraction, romantic love, or sexual desire exclusively for another of the same sex. ...

The Ancient Mediterranean world had vastly different attitudes toward gender and sexuality than those found in twenty-first century America or Europe. There was no term or concept of homosexuality. In addition, much of what is known about ancient Greek sexual practices and beliefs is based on writers and artists who lived at least 200 years after Homer's epics were created; it is unknown how much these practices and attitudes changed from the time Homer's epics were originally sung and the time that these later writers and artists recorded their work.

In Homer

In The Iliad, the death of Patroclus is the prime motivation of Achilles' wrath, the subject of the poem. Although Homer does not dwell on the relationship in great detail, it underpins a great deal of Achilles' actions.

It is not possible to designate the roles found in the Iliad between Achilles and Patroclus along pederastic lines. Achilles is the most dominant. Among the warriors in the Trojan War he has the most fame. Patroclus performs duties such as cooking, feeding and grooming the horses, and nursing yet is older than Achilles. Both also sleep with women. Nonetheless the emotion between the two is obviously intense love. Achilles is tender to Patroclus, callous and arrogant towards others. Although most warriors fought for personal fame or their city-state (including Achilles), at certain junctures in the Iliad, Achilles emphasizes his relationship with Patroclus above all else. He dreams that all Greeks would die so that he and Patroclus might gain the fame of conquering Troy alone. After Patroclus dies he agonizes touching his dead body, smearing himself with ash, and fasting. It was not until his desire for revenge to kill Hector who had killed Patroclus that he would fight again; fully aware that the gods warned him it would cost him his life. The Trojan War was a war waged, according to legend, against the city of Troy in Asia Minor by the armies of the Achaeans, following the kidnapping (or elopement) of Helen of Sparta by Paris of Troy. ... A city-state is a region controlled exclusively by a city. ... Walls of the excavated city of Troy (Turkey) Troy (Greek Τροία Troia also Ἰλιον; Latin: Troia, Ilium) is a legendary city, scene of the Trojan War, part of which is described in Homers Iliad, an epic poem in Ancient Greek, composed in the 8th or 7th century BC, but containing older...

Classical views

In Classical Greece, and especially in Hellenism, the relationship of Achilles and Patroclus was often seen as pederastic. In the fifth century B.C., Aeschylus in his now-lost tragedy The Myrmidons clearly regarded the relationship as a sexual one and assigned Achilles the role of erastes or protector (since he had avenged his lover's death even though the gods told him it would cost him his own life), and Patroclus the role of eromenos. He tells of Achilles visiting Patroclus' dead body and criticizing him for letting himself be killed. In a surviving fragment of the play, Achilles speaks of a “devout union of the thighs”. This article describes the ancient classical period: for the classical period in music (second half of the 18th century): see Classical music era. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance... Pederastic courtship scene Athenian black-figure amphora, 5th c. ... Aeschylus This article is about the ancient Greek playwright. ... The Myrmidons (or Myrmidones, the name literally means ant-people) were an ancient nation of Greek mythology. ... In the pederastic tradition of Classical Athens, the eromenos (Greek ἐρόμενος, pl. ... Pederastic courtship scene. ...

Plato wrote the Symposium about 385 BC, and by then an established tradition viewed Achilles and Patroclus as lovers. In the Symposium, Phaedrus holds the two up as an example of divinely approved lovers. He also argues that Aeschylus erred in saying that Achilles was the erastes, "for he excelled in beauty not Patroclus alone but assuredly all the other heroes, being still beardless and, moreover, much the younger, by Homer's account." However, Plato's contemporary Xenophon, in his own Symposium, had Socrates argue that Achilles and Patroclus were merely chaste and devoted comrades. Plato Plato (Greek: Πλάτων, Plátōn) (c. ... Originally, the term symposium referred to a drinking party; the Greek verb sympotein means to drink together. The term has since come to refer to any academic conference, irrespective of drinking. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 430s BC 420s BC 410s BC 400s BC 390s BC - 380s BC - 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC 330s BC Years: 390 BC 389 BC 388 BC 387 BC 386 BC - 385 BC - 384 BC 383 BC... Xenophon (In Greek , c. ... Xenophons Symposium records the discussion of Socrates and company at a dinner given by Callias for the youth Autolycus. ... This article is about the ancient Greek philosopher, for all other uses see: Socrates (disambiguation) Socrates (June 4, ca. ...

Evidence of this debate is found in a speech by an Athenian politician, Aeschines, at his trial in 345 BC. Aeschines in placing an emphasis on the importance of pederasty to the Greeks argues that though Homer does not state it explicitly, educated people should be able to read between the lines. “Although (Homer) speaks in many places of Patroclus and Achilles, he hides their love and avoids giving a name to their friendship, thinking that the exceeding greatness of their affection is manifest to such of his hearers as are educated men.” Most ancient writers followed the thinking laid out by Aeschines. Aeschines (389 - 314 BC), Greek statesman and one of the ten Attic orators, was born at Athens. ... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 390s BC 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC - 340s BC - 330s BC 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC Years: 350 BC 349 BC 348 BC 347 BC 346 BC - 345 BC - 344 BC 343 BC... Pederasty as idealized by the ancient Greeks, was a relationship and bond between an adolescent boy and an adult man outside of his immediate family. ...

Since Homer does not use the terms “erastes” and “eromenos”, it has been argued that their relationship was not pederastic but rather egalitarian. In Homer's Ionian culture it appears homosexuality had not taken on the form it later would in pederasty. However some scholars, such as Bernard Sergent, have argued that it had, though it was not reflected in Homer. Sergent asserts that ritualized man-boy relations were widely diffused through Europe from prehistoric times. Egalitarianism is the moral doctrine that equality ought to prevail among some group along some dimension. ... Ionia (Greek Ιωνία; see also List of traditional Greek place names) was an ancient region of southwestern coastal Anatolia (now in Turkey) on the Aegean Sea. ... French historian specializing in ancient Greek history. ... Prehistory (Greek words προ = before and ιστορία = history) is the period of human history prior to the advent of writing (which marks the beginning of recorded history). ...

Attempts to edit the text were undertaken by Aristarchus of Samothrace in Alexandria around 200 BC. Aristarchus, who has been called “the founder of scientific scholarship”, believed that Homer did not intend the two to be lovers. However he did agree that the “we-two alone” passage did imply a love relation and argued it was a later interpolation. But the majority of ancient and modern historians have accepted the lines to be an original part. Aristarchus of Samothrace, Gr. ... Antiquity and modernity stand cheek-by-jowl in Egypts chief Mediterranean seaport Located on the Mediterranean Sea coast, Alexandria Αλεξάνδρεια (in Arabic, الإسكندرية, transliterated al-ʼIskandariyyah) is the chief seaport in Egypt, and that countrys second largest city, and the capital of the Al Iskandariyah governate. ... Centuries: 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC Decades: 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC 220s BC 210s BC - 200s BC - 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC 160s BC 150s BC Years: 205 BC 204 BC 203 BC 202 BC 201 BC - 200 BC - 199 BC 198 BC...

Modern interpretations

Many modern scholars tend to either hold up the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus as the first model of homosexual love in literature or assert that it was an entirely non-sexual relationship. Both positions usually reflect the speaker's position in contemporary culture wars. The term Culture Wars has been used to describe ideologically-driven and often strident confrontations typical of American public culture and politics since the 1960s, but especially beginning in the 1980s. ...

The novels of Mary Renault contain frequent references to Achilles and Patroclus, usually presenting the pair as a model for homosexual love. Mary Renault (1905–1983) was an English novelist whose works are still popular with devotees of the historical novel. ...

The film Troy presented Patroclus as a younger relative of Achilles, and did not include any romantic or sexual aspect in their relationship. Troy is a movie that was released on May 14, 2004 about the Trojan War, which is described in Homers Iliad and other Greek myths as having taken place in Anatolia (modern Turkey) around the 13th or 12th century BC. It stars, among others: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric...

See also

• Homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece

When the topic of homosexuality in the militaries of Ancient Greece is discussed, the Sacred Band of Thebes is usually considered as the prime example of how the Ancient Greeks used homoerotic/homosexual relationships between soldiers in a troop to boost the fighting spirit of their militaries. ...

External links

• The Story of Achilles and Patroclus

Spoken-word myth (audio)