analysis of the parallelism between Nestor and Patroclus, reaching its climax in I.16, where Patroclus becomes a horseman, addressed as such in this verse

It seems at first as if everything is coming together here in Iliad 16. Achilles, best of the Achaeans, sends out his other self, Patroklos, to fight Hector and his Trojans, who are now on the verge of setting on fire and destroying all the beached ships of the Achaeans. Patroklos does in fact succeed in stopping the fire, which had been endangering not only the survival of the Achaeans but even the very existence of their notional descendants, imagined as the Greeks who are listening to the story of the Iliad in their own time. The conflagration that could have burned down the beached ships of the Achaeans is now literally ‘quenched’ by Patroklos, whose heroic action in putting out the fire of the Trojans is compared in a simile to a cosmic action taken by Zeus himself when this weather-god drenches and thus destroys in a violent rainstorm the farmlands of unjust men. Clearly, Zeus is now once again on the Achaean side of the Trojan War. But the success of Patroklos is not to last: soon after he kills Sarpedon, son of Zeus himself, in the course of a spectacular chariot fight, Patroklos now gets killed in the course of a second spectacular chariot fight. This time, Patroklos has gone too far, daring to attack not only Hector but also the divine protector of that hero, Apollo himself. Now everything is about to come apart again, and Achilles has yet to find out about the tragedy that awaits him.

A chariot driver and a chariot fighter in a biga (two-horses chariot). Terracotta, Late Helladic IIIA–IIIB (ca. 1400–1200 BCE). Louvre Museum, CA 2959. Credit line: Purchase, 1934.  Image Marie-Lan Nguyen (User:Jastrow), 2009-06-28 [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Here the idea of ‘best of the Achaeans’ is expressed by way of phertatos ‘best’. In the Iliad, only Achilles is designated as phertatos in comparison with the rest if the Achaeans as an aggregate. See also I.02.769.

See the comments on I.01.188, I.01.407–412, I.01.503–510, I.01.509, I.01.558–559, I.09.003, I.09.008–009, I.11.317–319.

This line shows that the grief of the Achaeans during the Battle of the Ships qualifies as ákhos, which signals le transfer du mal, or 'a transfer of evil':

the ákhos of Achilles leads to the ménis of Achilles leads to the ákhos of the Achaeans

See the comments on I.01.188, I.01.407–412, I.01.503–510, I.01.509, I.01.558–559, I.09.003, I.09.008–009, I.11.317–319.

See the comment on I.01.320–348. On loigos ‘devastation’ as the direct object of amunein ‘ward off’, see also I.10.456, I.15.736, I.16.075, I.16.080.

See the comments on I.01.188, I.01.407–412, I.01.503–510, I.01.509, I.01.558–559, I.09.003, I.09.008–009, I.11.317–319.

See the comments on I.01.188, I.01.407–412, I.01.503–510, I.01.509, I.01.558–559, I.09.003, I.09.008–009, I.11.317–319. Here at I.16.055, the akhos ‘grief’ that Achilles feels because he was dishonored by Agamemnon and by the Achaeans in general is equated, in his own words, with algea ‘pains’, object of the verb paskhein ‘suffering’. The idea of personal heroic suffering as expressed by way of the combination paskhein and algea here in the case of Achilles is parallel to what we see in the case of Odysseus at O.01.004.

In this verse, Achilles is speaking about Briseis. In the scholia T for this same verse, I.16.057, a variant tradition is reported about this captive woman: it comes from the epic known as the Cypria, which was part of the epic Cycle. On the epic Cycle, see the inventory of Words and Ideas. In the Cypria, as we are told by the scholia T here at I.16.057, Achilles captured Briseis when he conquered the city of Pedasos. In the Iliad, by contrast, the city that Achilles conquered when he captured Briseis was Lyrnessos, I.02.689–694. For more about such variation between Pedasos and Lyrnessos, see the comments on I.20.089–102 and I.20.187–194. See also the anchor comment at I.02.689–694 on: Aeolian women in the Iliad, part 1; see also the anchor comment at I.09.128–131 / 270–272 on: Aeolian women in the Iliad, part 2.

See the comment on I.01.320–348; see also I.16.032. Here the subject of the verb amunein ‘ward off’ switches from Achilles to Patroklos. This way, Patroklos becomes the savior of the Achaeans by rescuing them from the fire of Hector.

in the discussion of the rationale of the classification of the attestations of eukhesthai + dative

in a list of parallels to the opening of formula (A) hōs ephat’ eukhomenos… occurring in the last 9 books of the Iliad (with participles after phanai categorizing the speech, here as supplication), in the context of analyzing formula (A) and the meaning of eukhesthai

the grief (akhos) of Poseidon and Achilles at the disregard of their equal status in the community and the abuse of the communal division as analogous

the grief (akhos) of Poseidon and Achilles at the disregard of their equal status in the community and the abuse of the communal division as analogous

analysis of different interpretations of I.16.060-065 (whether Achilles is giving up his mēnis or not, etc.), comparison with the conditions Achilles sets specifies at I.09.650-653

analysis of different interpretations of this passage (whether Achilles is giving up his mēnis or not, etc.), comparison with the conditions Achilles sets specifies at I.09.650-653

analysis of Achilles’ intentions in sending Patroklos out to fight in his own armor, giving up his mēnis and identification with Patroklos

analysis of mēnis as a tabu deformation and here specifically an example the relaxation of the speech tabu

analysis of Achilles’ intentions in sending Patroklos out to fight in his own armor, giving up his mēnis and identification with Patroklos

demonstrating that kluein has no sacral connotations while eukhomenoio/euxamenoio does, in the context of the analyzing kluein + eukhesthai formulas

analysis of ēkousen as a lexical renewal of the petrified ekluen, in the context of analyzing kluein + eukhesthai formulas

demonstrating that kluein has no sacral connotations while eukhomenoio/euxamenoio does, in the context of the analyzing kluein + eukhesthai formulas

The formula exauda mē keuthe noōi occurs three times in the poem to mark three main stages of the narrative, each time in a scene between Achilles and a figure close to him: Thetis consoles the weeping Achilles and asks him to speak his mind (1.363); Patroklos, in tears, entreats his companion (16.19); and Thetis returns to Achilles once more, this time omitting the second part of the formulaic line as if she already knows his grief (18.74-75: exauda mē keuthe. ta men dē toi tetelestai / ek Dios). The poet seems to use it as a refrain; in context, the phrase both characterizes the tender relations between Achilles and Thetis, and Achilles and his companion, and introduces speech in such a way that we assume the following words are the candid outpourings of the speaker who is addressed (Martin 1993:209-10).

In the Conclusion to the book, the three occurrences of this formula have a further significance. Achilles is apostrophized eight times in the course of Book 16—more than any other figure in the poem at a comparable passage. If Homer puts on the role of his hero, making Achilles the "focalizer" of narration, this speech habit comes with it: Achilles, after all, is the one hero who most often addresses Patroklos in the course of the poem. Homer sees the death through the eyes of Achilles, his alter ego. In this regard, apostrophe is natural (Martin 1993:235-36).

For the broader argument that Achilles functions as focalizer of the narration, see the comment on Iliad 9.182-198.

References

Martin, R. P. 1993. The Language of Heroes: Speech and Performance in the Iliad. Ithaca.