Understand me: I do not have time with things that have no soul.
actual Proof that patroclus and achilles are Soft Boyfriends™
- achilles once woke patroclus up by pRESSING THEIR NOSES TOGETHER
- that was so gay i cannot and Will Not put up with this
- achilles: *tries to get patroclus’ attention by fucking juggling figs*
- patroclus literally Officially became achilles’ number 1 dude when they were like 13 can i live
- was i dreaming when patroclus described achilles’ lips to be like BEES what the hell why are they so small and cute
- not only handjobs but handjobs A) under the constellations and B) on achilles’ 16th bday
- they played together in the lake and wrestled each other and hung off of tree branches on the Magic Mountain that patroclus risked everything to follow achilles to !!!!!!
- “now i know how to make you follow me anywhere” shuT
- achilles tending to the wounds on patroclus’ feet after he hurt himself because he found out about the prophecy :-((
- tiny achilles highkey avoiding sleeping with one of the servant girls because he was highkey crushing on patroclus
- these boys just love each other so much and are so small and so sweet and so In Love
okay adding on to this:
- What if Hector stabbed Patroclus but the Myrmidons got to him before he could die and they carried him back, taking care of him because he’s Achilles’ boyfriend and they know he would kill them if they treated him poorly
- Achilles excited when he see’s Patroclus’ hair - because he was looking for him and of course he knows the difference between Patroclus’ hair and anyone else’s - but that happiness quickly turns to despair when he takes in the whole situation
- Achilles himself taking Patroclus back to their tent, ordering the others to leave them and to go get the healer
- Patroclus grinning despite the blood flowing freely from the wound in his abdomen as he tells Achilles what it was like, dressed up as the mighty Achilles himself
- Achilles hushes him, but Patroclus pushes on, because they told each other everything, and he needed to tell this to Achilles. Achilles had to know just how important he was
- Patroclus going numb, getting cold, but only holding Achilles’ hand tighter
- “Promise me,” he says, slowly because air does not want to fill his lungs. “Just this one thing. Bury our ashes in the same grave, so that we may lie together in death as we always have.”
- Achilles unable to hold back his tears, his hands fluttering over Patroclus’ face, holding him and swearing that he would do that, swearing that he would avenge Patroclus before he met him in the afterlife
- Patroclus waiting for one final kiss, and whispering his lover’s name on his final breath
“and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun”
what really kills me about Achilles’ narrative is that the only way he could become immortal was to give up his humanity. we’re so often reminded of the fact that he’s half a god, we sometimes forget he’s only half-human - that the line that keeps him from breaking is so thin.
in the Iliad, he was ready to give up immortality and go home before Patroclus went off to battle, he was ready to give up that fabled honour he was promised.
and then he loses Patroclus. And with it goes the last of his compassion and humanity and that sheer, brutal, visceral anger that drives him back into battle will be what he’s remembered for, his hubris and strength and pride, and ‘Achilles in Tent’ will eventually become a well-used trope in stories about team-work and selflessness, and he will eventually turn into an invincible hero archetype.
His legacy could never have happened without Patroclus’ death. He could never have become the legend he was known for, because it was either die young and famous or live out his life in obscurity. He was ready to choose the second option until it was taken from him.
And something had to fill the void that Patroclus left, and because he loved so fiercely and so much, the only emotion that could take over in it’s place - anger - needed to be overwhelming and superhuman in its strength. When he faces Hector, his ruthlessness is an exact reminder of that side of him, of the divinity that is half of who he is, that gods can only be gods if they are also capable of greed and cruelty and pettiness.
in his story, he ascended into godhood by having humanity ripped out of him. immortality is not a kind thing.
I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.
If I had had words to speak such a thing, I would have. But there were none that seemed big enough for it, to hold that swelling truth. As if he had heard me, he reached for my hand. I did not need to look; his fingers were etched into my memory, slender and petal-veined, strong and quick and never wrong. “Patroclus,” he said. He was always better with words than I.
“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
literature posters; the song of achilles by madeline miller
