Were Achilles and Patroclus lovers? Short answer: yes

Lately I've noticed this topic resurfacing in the debate, and I'd like to tell my perspective, speaking from the text of the Iliad and Greek philosophers and poets, not from fiction.

---First of all, to begin addressing this topic...On Greek sexuality and why we cannot use the term gay to describe Achilles. ---

The Trojan War, in which Achilles particularly distinguished himself, dates from around 1194 to 1184 BC, meaning that the stories told about it were written more than 500 years after it occurred. At that time, the Greeks had not internalized concepts like "heterosexual" or "homosexual," as their sexuality was much more fluid. This means that we can often see in classical and historical works of the period how society accepted that a man could be attracted not only to women but also to men.

The Greeks understood, of course, that one can have a preference for one gender or another. In fact, in ‘The Symposium’ from Plato’s Symposium (385–370 BC), he illustrates precisely this conception of love through the example of primitive humans.

And why is all this important? Well, because Achilles could hardly be called gay, since there are multiple texts that portray him as having a strong sexual desire for women. For example, in the Iliad, Achilles is shown subjugating Briseis, a captured woman, and making her his sex slave. Not only that, but Briseis was of such value to Achilles that the punishment Agamemnon imposes on him when he refuses to fight alongside him—handing her over—becomes one of the central points of the poem.

---But then, did Achilles have a romantic relationship with Patroclus or not?---

The fact that Achilles was attracted to Briseis doesn't mean he didn't have a romantic relationship with Patroclus. The Iliad never describes the two men as lovers, nor do they show them kissing or having sex, but this doesn't really mean anything. And I'll explain why: although it's not explicit, it's very clear from the text that they were lovers.

To begin with, Achilles repeatedly describes Patroclus in the Iliad as “πολὺ φίλτατος . . . ἑταῖρος,” which means “my most beloved companion by far.” Not only that, but in Book 16, Achilles even goes so far as to wish that all Greek and Trojan soldiers would die so that they, together, could conquer the famous city of Troy.

In the Iliad...

Achilles and Patroclus were more than comrades in the war against the Trojans. Achilles, angered by Agamemnon's dishonor, initially refused to participate in the battle. As the tide of war turned against the Achaeans, Patroclus convinced Achilles to allow him to lead the Myrmidon army into battle, wearing Achilles' armor. Patroclus succeeded in pushing back the Trojan forces, but Hector killed him during the battle, mistaking him for Achilles.

The news of Patroclus's death reaches Achilles through Antilochus, and Achilles is plunged into deep grief at the loss of his beloved. The once steadfast and unyielding Achilles lies dying, touching Patroclus's body, smearing himself with ashes, and refusing to eat. He even embraces it until dawn (that is, he does not sleep, but remains awake embracing his lover's corpse). He mourns Patroclus's death using language very similar to that later used by Andromache (Hector's wife) for Hector. He also requests that when he dies, his ashes be mingled with Patroclus's.

Upon hearing the news of Patroclus' death at the hands of Hector, Achilles reacts violently, lamenting so much that he says he has lost the will to live until he avenges him.

"My dear companion is dead—Patroclus—the man I loved above all others, loved as my own life—I have lost him."

The rage that followed Patroclus' death became Achilles' primary motivation for returning to the battlefield. He returned to battle with the sole objective of avenging Patroclus' death by killing Hector, despite the warning that doing so would cost him his life. After defeating Hector, Achilles dragged his corpse by its heels behind his chariot. Achilles dragged Hector's body around Troy for nine days, performing the ritual each morning around Patroclus' tomb, even though the gods protected the body from damage. Finally, Priam negotiated the return of the body so that Trojan funeral rites could be performed.

His lamentations and obsession with clinging to Patroclus's body and refusing to allow it to be buried are more characteristic of a heartbroken lover than a friend or companion. Likewise, when he finally agrees to perform the funeral rites, Achilles places a lock of his hair in Patroclus's hands before bidding him farewell (Book 23).

There are many similar moments where we witness the very special relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. For example, at the end of the play, Patroclus returns as a ghost for a final conversation with Achilles.

"One last request: grant it, please. Do not bury my bones apart from yours, Achilles, let them lie together... Let a single urn, the two-handed golden urn that your noble mother gave you, hold our bones together."

--What do classical authors say about it?--

As the years have passed, numerous authors have re-examined the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and drawn conclusions about the text's commentary on the type of affection they felt for each other.

For example, Gregory Nagy, one of the world's leading experts on the Iliad, stated that "For Achilles... in his scale of affection, as dramatized by the composition of the Iliad, the highest place belongs to Patroclus."

Similarly, Robin Lane Fox, another of the most influential figures in the study of Classical Greece, asserts that "there is no evidence in the text of the Iliad that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers" (The Tribal Imagination: Civilization and the Savage Mind, p. 223).

So why do so many people today seem to claim that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers? The answer is quite simple: because most influential authors of the 5th and 4th centuries BC openly portrayed Achilles and Patroclus as lovers.

For example, Plato in The Symposium (385 BC), Pindar in his Olympian Odes (476 BC), and Aeschylus in The Myrmidons (5th century BC) depict Achilles and Patroclus as lovers in a very natural and straightforward way.

...Achilles and Patroclus in Aeschylus's The Myrmidons...

The Myrmidons, the classic play written by Aeschylus, is known for openly depicting a sexual and intimate relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. In it, Achilles is portrayed as the erastes, or active partner, while Patroclus is shown as the eromenos, or passive partner.

Furthermore, The Myrmidons alludes to a sexual practice without penetration that was very common at the time: masturbation using a partner's thighs.

In fragment 135 of the play, a character reproaches Achilles:

“σέβας δὲ μηρῶν ἁγνὸν οὐ κατῃδέσω, ὦ δυσχάριστε τῶν πυκνῶν φιλημάτων”

Or, in other words:

But you felt no shame for the sacred wonders of thighs, oh, most ungrateful man of multitude kisses.

As if that weren't enough, when Patroclus dies, Achilles again refers to this form of sexual practice with his companion.

...

...Achilles and Patroclus in Plato's Symposium...

For Plato, it was clear that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers. Unlike Aeschylus's Myrmidons, in the Symposium, part of Plato's Symposium, it is clear that Achilles was the passive partner (eromenos) and Patroclus the active partner (erastes).

Furthermore, the relationship between them is presented from a positive and, at the very least, optimistic perspective.

...Achilles and Patroclus in Aeschines's Against Trimarch...

Another author who openly considers Achilles and Patroclus to be lovers is Aeschines (389-314 BC), as shown in his work Against Trimarch. According to Aeschines, Homer does not explicitly mention the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus because their affection is so evident that it is implied.

Not only that, but Aeschines clearly compares the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus, based on mutual consent and respect between two adults, with that of Trimarch, who has been prostituting himself to other men for money.

---Interpretation of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus after the Classical period---

The myth of Achilles and Patroclus did not disappear after the conquest of Greece. In the play Erotes, attributed to Loukianos of Samosata (125-180 AD), two characters argue about whether it is better to have relations with a child or with a woman (yes, barbaric...). At this point, one of them argues that "Achilles and Patroclus are nothing more than ostentatious lovers."

Later, the idea that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers faded during the medieval period until William Shakespeare revived it in Troilus and Cressida (1602). In Act I, Scene III, Odysseus complains that Achilles spends all his time in bed with Patroclus. In fact, in one passage of the play, we see him refer to Patroclus as "Achilles' whore."

The explicit ambiguity surrounding the nature of Achilles and Patroclus's relationship in the Iliad has led more conservative authors and societies to categorize them as mere comrades, while more liberal ones see them as a clear example of a homosexual relationship. For instance, Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles (Adn Novelas, 2011) has popularized this latter interpretation through a simply marvelous retelling of their relationship.

The truth is, we may never know for sure. For me, it's clear that the text conveys the passion and devotion that only two lovers can share. After all, what kind of relationship did a man have who placed a lock of his hair in the hand of his dead comrade?