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Patroclus comes to Achilles in tears and asks to wear his armour. Achilles reluctantly agrees but warns him to drive the Trojans back and not to pursue them to Troy.
Patroclus saves the ships and kills Sarpedon, Zeus’s son. Then he ignores the warning and attacks the walls. Apollo stuns him, Euphorbus wounds him, and Hector gives the final blow. Dying, Patroclus prophesies that Achilles will kill Hector and that Achilles will soon die.
Opening lines
Thus then they were warring around the well-benched ship, but Patroclus drew nigh to Achilles, shepherd of the host, shedding hot tears, even as a fountain of dark water that down over the face of a beetling cliff poureth its dusky stream; [5] and swift-footed goodly Achilles had pity when he saw him, and spake and add — Homer, Iliad XVI.1ff., trans. A. T. Murray (Loeb; Perseus Digital Library, CC BY-SA 4.0).
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