Patroclus' arrow-injury bandaged by Achilles

The moustached Patroclus squats on his shield. The beardless Achilles crouches down to don - around his comrade's arrow-injured left upper arm - a white, two-rolled bandage.

Patroclus has obviously been wounded by the arrow in the bottom left of the icon which both of the heroes seem to stare at. Patroclus looks straight at the feathers of the cubit-long arrow, Achilles' line of sight seems to go to the heart-shaped arrowhead.

The seven letters ΑΧΥΛΕΥϚ are written clockwise, the nine letters ϚΟΛΚΟΡΤΑΠ anticlockwise. The spelling of the word Achilles as AXYLEYS is homeric; the use of capital letters archaic; especially the capital letter Stigma {_Ϛ_} at both of the endings of their hellenic names is striking.

This piece of pottery is incribed with ΣΟΣΙΑΣ ΕΠΟΙΗΣΕΝ ('Sosias created (it)'). His kylix was discovered in Vulci and is exhibited in Altes Museum, Berlin.


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Der Einsatz von Schrift auf griechischen Vasen beginnt im späten 8. Jh. v. Chr., also einige Jahrzehnte nach der Erfindung des griechischen Alphabets. Vaseninschriften wurden entweder
vor dem Brand des Gefäßes aufgemalt oder, seltener, nach dem Brand in das Gefäß eingeritzt. Während die nachträglich eingeritzten Inschriften auch in späterer Zeit fast immer den Besitzer des Gefäßes angaben, es als Weihgeschenk für eine Gottheit auswiesen oder Markierungen von Händlern darstellten, änderte sich hingegen die Funktion von gemalten Inschriften rasch. Die frühesten gemalten Inschriften auf griechischer Keramik waren fast ausschließlich sogenannte Töpfersignaturen, doch schon etwa ab dem 2. Viertel des 7. Jhs. begannen die Inschriften, vielfältigere Zwecke zu erfüllen. Diese Entwicklung wurde dadurch angetrieben, daß die Maler seit dieser Zeit ihre Inschriften in das figürlich bemalte Bildfeld integrierten.
Die Maler nutzten die Kombination der beiden Medien Schrift und Bild zunächst hauptsächlich, um die in den Vasenbildern dargestellten Figuren mit einem Namen zu versehen.
Diese sogenannten Namensbeischriften, welche in vielerlei Gestalten und Funktionen auftreten und eine eigene Untersuchung erfordern würden, finden sich etwa ab der Mitte des 7. Jhs. zunächst nur gelegentlich auf nicht-attischer Keramik. Im Attischen lassen sie sich vermehrt erst auf Vasen des Nessos-Malers im letzten Viertel des 7. Jhs. nachweisen. Abbildung 13 zeigt dazu ein bekanntes Beispiel, den Halsfries der namensgebenden Amphora des Malers in Athen, um 610/600.4 Mit dem beginnenden Aufschwung der attischen Keramik am Anfang des 6. Jhs. erlebten auch die Namensbeischriften den Anfang ihrer Blütezeit. Die Buchstaben verlaufen meistens entweder ungefähr senkrecht, in etwa der Körperform der Figur folgend, oder horizontal. In beiden Fällen „beginnen“ die Beischriften in der Regel in der Nähe des Kopfes, und zwar meist so, daß der erste Buchstabe (und nicht der letzte) dem Kopf am nächsten liegt. Oft stimmt die Richtung der Inschrift auch mit der Richtung überein, in die der Kopf einer Figur gewendet ist.
Dieses Schema, an das sich zumindest in der ersten Hälfte des 6. Jhs. viele Maler hielten, von dem sie aber nicht selten aus Platzgründen abwichen, erleichterte die Zuordnung der Beischrift zu den Figuren, vor allem auf so vielfigurigen Darstellungen wie denen des Sophilos-Dinos.
ZUR VERWENDUNG VON SCHRIFT IN DER GRIECHISCHEN VASENMALEREI Georg Simon Gerleigner

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► Aeschylus Μυρμιδόνες: Achilles & Patroclus {-(Pseudo-)Lukian, Ἔρωτες 54
ἐρωτικὸς γὰρ ἦν, εἴπερ τις, καὶ ὁ Σωκράτης, καὶ ὑπὸ μίαν Ἀλκιβιάδης αὐτῷ χλανίδα κλιθεὶς οὐκ ἀπλὴξ ἀνέστη. καὶ μὴ θαυμάσῃς· οὐδὲ γὰρ ὁ Πάτροκλος ὑπ᾽ Ἀχιλλέως ἠγαπᾶτο μέχρι τοῦ καταντικρὺ καθέζεσθαι
// δέγμενος Αἰακίδην, ὁπότε λήξειεν ἀείδων, //
{{quotation out of Homer's Ilias 9.191}}
ἀλλ᾽ ἦν καὶ τῆς ἐκείνων φιλίας μεσῖτις ἡδονή· στένων γοῦν Ἀχιλλεὺς τὸν Πατρόκλου θάνατον ἀταμιεύτῳ πάθει πρὸς τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἀπερράγη,
// μηρῶν τε τῶν σῶν εὐσέβησ᾽ ὁμιλίαν //
// κλαίων ..............................................//
{{ quotation out of Aeschylus' Μυρμιδόνες}}
τούς γε μὴν ὀνομαζομένους παρ᾽ Ἕλλησιν κωμαστὰς οὐδὲν ἀλλ᾽ ἢ δήλους ἐραστὰς νομίζω. τάχα φήσει τις αἰσχρὰ ταῦτ᾽ εἶναι λέγεσθαι, πλὴν ἀληθῆ γε νὴ τὴν Κνιδίαν Ἀφροδίτην.
Translation of 'Amores' by A.M. Harmon (Loeb edition):
For Socrates was as devoted to love as anyone and Alcibiades, once he had lain down beneath the same mantle with him, did not rise unassailed. Don't be surprised at that. For not even the affection of Achilles for Patroclus was limited to having him seated opposite "waiting until Aeacides should cease his song." No, pleasure was the mediator even of their friendship. At any rate, when Achilles was lamenting the death of Patroclus, his unrestrained feelings made him burst out with the truth and say,
// "The converse of our thighs my tears do mourn //
// With duteous piety ............ .......................... ... " //
Those whom the Greeks call "revellers" I think to be nothing but ostentatious lovers. Perhaps someone will assert this is a shameful thing to say, but, by Aphrodite of Cnidus, it's the truth.

► A.Pr. 425-430: Prometheus & Atlas
μόνον δὴ πρόσθεν ἄλλον ἐν πόνοις
δαμέντ᾽ ἀδαμαντοδέτοις
Τιτᾶνα λύμαις εἰσιδόμαν, θεόν,
Ἄτλαντος αἰὲν ὑπέροχον σθένος κραταιόν,
ὃς οὐράνιόν πόλον
νώτοις στέγων ὑποστενάζει
Translation of A.Pr. 425ff by Herbert Weir Smyth:
One other Titan god before this I have seen in distress, enthralled in torment by adamantine bonds—Atlas, pre-eminent in mighty strength, who moans as he supports the vault of heaven on his back.

► Platon Symposion 180A
....οὐχ ὥσπερ Ἀχιλλέα τὸν τῆς Θέτιδος ὑὸν ἐτίμησαν καὶ εἰς μακάρων νήσους ἀπέπεμψαν, ὅτι πεπυσμένος παρὰ τῆς μητρὸς ὡς ἀποθανοῖτο ἀποκτείνας Ἕκτορα, μὴ ποιήσας δὲ τοῦτο οἴκαδε ἐλθὼν γηραιὸς τελευτήσοι, ἐτόλμησεν ἑλέσθαι βοηθήσας τῷ ἐραστῇ Πατρόκλῳ καὶ
[180α] τιμωρήσας οὐ μόνον ὑπεραποθανεῖν ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπαποθανεῖν τετελευτηκότι: ὅθεν δὴ καὶ ὑπεραγασθέντες οἱ θεοὶ διαφερόντως αὐτὸν ἐτίμησαν, ὅτι τὸν ἐραστὴν οὕτω περὶ πολλοῦ ἐποιεῖτο. Αἰσχύλος δὲ φλυαρεῖ φάσκων Ἀχιλλέα Πατρόκλου ἐρᾶν, ὃς ἦν καλλίων οὐ μόνον Πατρόκλου ἀλλ᾽ ἅμα καὶ τῶν ἡρώων ἁπάντων, καὶ ἔτι ἀγένειος, ἔπειτα νεώτερος πολύ, ὥς φησιν Ὅμηρος. ἀλλὰ γὰρ τῷ ὄντι μάλιστα μὲν ταύτην τὴν ἀρετὴν οἱ θεοὶ τιμῶσιν τὴν περὶ [180β] τὸν ἔρωτα, μᾶλλον μέντοι θαυμάζουσιν καὶ ἄγανται καὶ εὖ ποιοῦσιν ὅταν ὁ ἐρώμενος τὸν ἐραστὴν ἀγαπᾷ, ἢ ὅταν ὁ ἐραστὴς τὰ παιδικά. θειότερον γὰρ ἐραστὴς παιδικῶν: ἔνθεος γάρ ἐστι. διὰ ταῦτα καὶ τὸν Ἀχιλλέα τῆς Ἀλκήστιδος μᾶλλον ἐτίμησαν, εἰς μακάρων νήσους ἀποπέμψαντες.
οὕτω δὴ ἔγωγέ φημι ἔρωτα θεῶν καὶ πρεσβύτατον καὶ τιμιώτατον καὶ κυριώτατον εἶναι εἰς ἀρετῆς καὶ εὐδαιμονίας κτῆσιν ἀνθρώποις καὶ ζῶσι καὶ τελευτήσασιν. [180ξ] Φαῖδρον μὲν τοιοῦτόν τινα λόγον ἔφη εἰπεῖν, ...
Translation by Harold N. Fowler of Plat. Sym. 179e...
... whereas Achilles, son of Thetis, they honored and sent to his place in the Isles of the Blest {{2: --> Pindar Oden 2.78ff. but Homer Odyssee 11.467ff., places him in Hades}}, because having learnt from his mother that he would die as surely as he slew Hector {{3:--> Homer Ilias 18.96}} but if he slew him not, would return home and end his days an aged man, he bravely chose to go and rescue his lover Patroclus,[180a] avenged him, and sought death not merely in his behalf but in haste to be joined with him whom death had taken. For this the gods so highly admired him that they gave him distinguished honor, since he set so great a value on his lover. And Aeschylus{{1:-->Aeschylus Myrmidones fr. 135-136}} talks nonsense when he says that it was Achilles who was in love with Patroclus; 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 {{2:-->Hom. Il. 11.786: 'My child, in birth is Achilles nobler than thou, but thou art the elder though in might he is the better far ...'}} For in truth [180b] there is no sort of valor more respected by the gods than this which comes of love; yet they are even more admiring and delighted and beneficent when the beloved is fond of his lover than when the lover is fond of his favorite; since a lover, filled as he is with a god, surpasses his favorite in divinity. This is the reason why they honored Achilles above Alcestis, giving him his abode in the Isles of the Blest.
“So there is my description of Love—that he is the most venerable and valuable of the gods, and that he has sovereign power to provide all virtue and happiness for men whether living or departed.” [180c] 3Such in the main was Phaedrus' speech as reported to me ...

furthermore confer: ► Athenaios XIII 75 ► Xenophon


other photographs, same motive:
► . @ ЯAFIK ♋ BERLIN
► Achilles & Patroclus @ hornitologist Don’t be fooled by Hollywood’s claims of brotherly love; Achilles and Patroclus were definitely lovers.
► Achilles and Patroclus ... Patroclus, the son of Menoitius, is both Achilles' cousin and his foster brother ... This close familial relationship, along with the traditional role of a Greek hero to act more boldly than an ordinary mortal, may be sufficient to explain the depth and violence of Achilles' reaction to his comrade's death, but not the fact they were buried in the same tomb with their bones mingled.
► image on a contemporary, greek stamp
Achilles then organized an athletic competition to honour his dead friend and/or lover, which included a chariot race (won by Diomedes), boxing (won by Epeios), wrestling (a draw between Telamonian Aias and Odysseus), a foot race (won by Odysseus), a duel (a draw between Aias and Diomedes), a discus throw (won by Polypoites), an archery contest (won by Meriones), and a javelin throw (won by Agamemnon, unopposed). The games are described in Book 23 of the Iliad ...
The death of Achilles is given in sources others than the Iliad. His body was given a funeral pyre. His bones were mingled with those of Patroclus so that the two would be companions in death as in life.Their remains were tranferred to Leuke island of the Black Sea.
► Death of Achilles
As predicted by Hector with his dying breath, Achilles was thereafter killed by Paris - either by an arrow (to the heel according to Statius), or in an older version by a knife to the back while visiting Polyxena, a princess of Troy. In some versions, the god Apollo guided Paris' arrow.
Both versions conspicuously deny the killer any sort of valor owing to the common conception that Paris was a coward and not the man his brother Hector was, and Achilles remains undefeated on the battlefield. His bones are mingled with those of Patroclus, and funeral games are held. He was represented in the lost Trojan War epic of Arctinus of Miletus as living after his death in the island of Leuke at the mouth of the Danube ... Leuce had also a reputation as a place of healing. Pausanias reports that the Delphic Pythia sent a lord of Croton to be cured of a chest wound { --> Peleus entrusted Achilles to the healer & teacher Chiron, on Mt. Pelion, to be raised.<--}
► the homoerotic myth
Some say that when Achilles was born, his mother, Thetis, dipped him in the river Styx, to make him invulnerable to all weapons. But as she did so, she held him by the heel, which never got wet, and there it was that the fatal arrow hit him. Others say it is not so, that Thetis plunged him into fire hoping to make him immortal like herself, but his father, Peleus, king of Phthia, came into the room and interrupted her. Furious at his meddling, the mother took off and returned to the ocean, her former abode. Peleus, now needing a tutor for the boy, took the baby to his friend Cheiron, the wise centaur who had raised so many other heroes. The boy grew up fed on the marrow of bears to gain courage, and on the marrow of fawns, to be a speedy runner. At the age of six he killed his first wild boar, and was able to outrun wild deer at the hunts. He grew up to be the bravest, handsomest and swiftest of the heroes.
When fair Helen was taken by Paris, the Trojan prince, and all of Greece rose up to return her to her rightful home, golden-haired Achilles led the Greek armies in the siege of Troy, and fought well for nine years, but time came when he refused to fight besides the other heroes. Agamemnon, the Greek general, had taken lovely Briseis away from him by force, the girl which had fallen to his lot as spoils of war and was his favorite slave. "Go ahead, Agamemnon, rob me of my rightful prize," said Achilles, his heart black with anger, "but know that the Greeks shall look for me in their hour of need, and shall not find me!" And so brave Achilles sat in his tent as the fighting raged on the battlefield, and as hero after hero perished under the attacks of Hector, the Trojan general, and his troops. And the Greeks would have perished to the last man, had not Achilles been stirred by one thing and one thing only: his love for Patroclus, his bosom friend and lover. Only when his partner was torn from him by death did he return to the field of battle, to avenge him whom he cherished above all others.
They had been friends from childhood, from the days when Achilles had returned from the forest to live in the house of his father. One day Menoetius, an old friend of his father, came to the court of King Peleus to seek refuge. It seems his young son, Patroclus, had fought with a friend of his over a game of dice, and without meaning to, had killed the other boy. Menoetius and Peleus had sailed together on the Argos, and were good friends, so refuge was granted to the two weary travelers. Later Peleus held holy ceremony and purified Patroclus of his crime. The youth was appointed squire to Achilles. They soon became the best of friends, and later lovers.
His mother, being a goddess, knew that a great war was to take place between the Greeks and the Trojans. And she also knew that if her son went to fight against the Trojans he would die. So she sent Achilles to the court of King Lycomedes, where he was dressed as a girl and hidden with the king's daughters. It was a good trick, but the Greek generals were wilier still. The seer Calchas had already warned them that they would never take Troy without the help of the young son of King Peleus. So three of them, among whom Ulysses, journeyed forth to Skyros, the island of King Lycomedes, where it was rumored the boy was hidden. The king bade them search where they liked, and they found nothing, but Ulysses thought up a ruse. He brought a pile of gifts to the women's quarters, among which he hid a shield and a spear. While the girls were picking through the fineries he had an accomplice sound the war trumpet. Achilles, thinking the island was under attack, stripped off his women's clothes and picked up the weapons. Once he had been discovered, Lycomedes let him take his leave, and he was appointed admiral of the Greek fleet. He was still only fifteen years old. Nonetheless, while living among the king's daughters he had fallen in love with one of them, Deidameia by name, and had left her with child. Later, after the Greek fleet had set sail for Troy the ships were scattered by a storm, and Achilles took advantage of the delay to return to Skyros to marry Deidameia.
Soon thereafter the ships gathered again, and sailed for Troy, which they reached after many hardships. Achilles was not unaccompanied: Patroclus had been sent to watch over him, and from then on they were inseparable. In praying to the gods, Achilles would ask them to rid the world of all mankind, except for Patroclus and himself. Even so, Achilles kept on falling in love: as soon as the Greeks reached the Trojan shore, they joined battle with the defenders. Among them was Troilus, the nineteen year old son of Priam, the king of Troy. It had been foretold that if he lived to the age of twenty, Troy would not fall, but that was not to be. Achilles was overtaken with desire for him as they were fighting. "I will kill you, unless you yield to my caresses," threatened the hero. The youth refused, and ran to hide inside a temple of Apollo, but Achilles barged in, offending the god, and since the young man still resisted, beheaded him upon the altar.
After landing at Troy the Greeks found that the citadel was too strong to attack, so they spent the next nine years sacking the surrounding cities. Achilles was always in the forefront of the battles, and time and again he and his men, the Myrmidons, led the Greeks to victory. With him in command, the Greeks took more than twenty towns, and towards the end of the ninth year of battle the city of Lyrnessus fell. Briseis, a royal princess, was taken captive, and when the spoils were parceled out she fell to Achilles. She was not his for long. When Agamemnon had to give up his own concubine to appease the gods his fury knew no bounds, and he took his rage out on Achilles by seizing Briseis. From then on Achilles swore he would have no part of the war, and pulled his men out of the ranks. Now the Greeks' luck turned, and the Trojans had the upper hand.
Agamemnon bitterly repented, and sent men to beg Achilles to return to battle, and to promise him the return of Briseis. Achilles would have none of it, and things looked grim for the Greeks. With the Trojans about to set fire to the Greek ships, Patroclus asked Achilles to borrow his armor, so that being seen in it he might strike fear into the hearts of the Trojans. Achilles consented, but warned Patroclus to come back as soon as he had driven the Trojans away from the ships. In the heat of battle Patroclus did not heed his friend's advice, and pushed the enemy back to the very walls of Troy. Apollo, patron of the Trojans, had to step in and knock Patroclus back, and then Hector finished him off with a single blow.
When Achilles heard the bitter news he cried and rolled in the dust with grief. His friends brought back Patroclus' body from battle field, but he would not let them bury it. He lay down on top of it, holding it in his arms, sobbing helplessly. His own mother, Thetis, came to comfort him: "My child, how long will you keep on crying your eyes out in sorrow, forgetting food and sleep? It is a good thing to lie in love with women too." But Achilles could think of nothing but his lost companion, and bitterly he reproached him for squandering his life: "You had no consideration for my pure reverence of your thighs, ungrateful after all our frequent kisses."
And then Achilles rose up, donned the new armor that his mother had brought, fresh from the forges of the god Hephaistos, and plunged back into battle, routing the Trojans and slaying Hector, their general and the oldest son of King Priam. Soon thereafter it was his turn to die, at the hands of Paris, Hector's brother, who pierced his heel with a poisoned arrow guided by Apollo, who had not forgotten the death of Troilus. Thus the prophesy was fulfilled, and Achilles' ghost rejoined his friend's in the Elysian Fields. Their ashes were mixed together in a golden urn, and the Greeks buried them in a common tomb.

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The name of Achilles
In the first century CE - when everywhere
{ -->Great Dover Street Gladiatrix found in 2000 in Londinium <--}
in the Roman Empire slaves and women began to fight for their emancipation - his name was often turned into the female form of 'Achillia' which is attested on a relief from Halicarnassus as the name of a gladiatrix fighting against another gladiatrix named 'Amazon'. Both were eventually emancipated ('apelythsan') for their brave spectacle of Achilles' war against Penthesilea and their amazons ...

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► photocredits: ◄
search results: 13/05/10:::63;
►► Achilles and Patroclus @ mashpedia
►► A History of Medicine: Early Greek, Hindu, and Persian Medicine Von Henry E. Sigerist, 1961.
►► achilles heal | Patroclus | wound first aid @answerbag
►► bandage wallpaper @ myxer
►► oedipusphinx has added a photo to the pool 28th April 2010 @ freeraider
►► photo post via flickr-API 13th May 2010 @excel.learn