Nestor’s plan

Achilles’ petulance filled Patroclus with shame. Nestor, one of the oldest and wisest of the Greek leaders, suggested that if he could not persuade Achilles to change his mind, Patroclus might consider going into battle himself, disguised as Achilles, to scare the Trojans away. Patroclus agreed to go along with Nestor’s plan.

By the time that Patroclus visited Achilles to implore him to fight, the Trojans had driven the Greeks so far back toward the sea that there was a danger they might set fire to the Greek ships. Achilles still refused to join in the battle himself. However, the danger was so great that he agreed to let Patroclus ride into battle disguised as him, but he told his friend that he must only chase the Trojans away from the ships, and then retreat. Patroclus put on Achilles’ armor and led his men into battle. The ploy was a huge success. Many Trojans were killed, and the Trojan forces were forced back toward the walls of their city.

However, Patroclus did not heed Achilles’ advice.

Carried away with his success, Patroclus did not retreat, as Achilles had asked him to, but followed the Trojans across the battlefield. The god Apollo, who supported the Trojans in the war, knocked off Patroclus’s helmet and tore his breastplate from his body, leaving him extremely vulnerable and revealing to the Trojans that it was not Achilles fighting but an imposter. First the Trojan Euphorbus struck him with a spear, weakening him considerably. Then Hector, the leader of the Trojan forces, killed him.

The horrified Greeks collected the body of Patroclus from the battlefield and took it to Achilles’ camp. Achilles was overcome with grief. Desperate to avenge his dear friend’s death, he returned to the battlefield and fought Hector in single combat, eventually killing him. Achilles’ anger was still so great that for the next 12 days he drove his chariot around the walls ofTroy, dragging Hector’s body behind him. Later, when Achilles himself was killed by Paris, his ashes were mingled with those of Patroclus and placed in a golden urn made by Hephaestus, blacksmith of the gods. In this way, the two friends were united for eternity.