Euphorbus Wounds Patroclus (*Iliad* 16)
Catalogue ID: 04-trojan-cycle/194-euphorbus-wounds-patroclus-iliad-16
Cycle: Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Patroclus’s death sequence
Version line: Homeric — second blow after Apollo; prelude to Hector’s killing thrust
Sources: Homer, *Iliad* 16.786–867 (Apollo strips Patroclus; Euphorbus wounds; Hector finishes)
Source file: /workspace/greek-myth-catalogue/04-trojan-cycle/194-euphorbus-wounds-patroclus-iliad-16.md
Characters
- Euphorbus — Panthous’s son; wounds Patroclus; later slain by Menelaus
- Hecuba — deals the fatal thrust; third in Patroclus’s dying tally
- Panthous — Trojan elder; father of Euphorbus (named)
- Patroclus — stripped by Apollo; wounded by Euphorbus; killed by Hector
- People of Crisa — first assailant; strips armor and wits
- Thyestes — avenger who kills Euphorbus (aftermath)
Places
Themes
Narrative
Patroclus, pressing beyond Achilles’ limit to the walls of Troy, is struck from behind by Apollo, who knocks off his helmet, shatters his spear, looses his corslet, and leaves him dazed and exposed. Euphorbus, son of Panthous—best of his age with the spear, who has already killed many—casts and hits Patroclus between the shoulders; he does not dare close to finish, but pulls his spear from the flesh and falls back into the throng. Hector then drives in and spears Patroclus in the belly, boasting; Patroclus, dying, prophesies Hector’s own death at Achilles’ hands and names the trio that felled him: Zeus (and Apollo), Euphorbus, and Hector as third.
Menelaus later kills Euphorbus over Patroclus’s body and strips him—Homeric justice for the first wound. Catalogue Euphorbus apart from Hector’s kill and from Apollo’s stripping: he is the mortal intermediary whose spear makes the god’s victim bleed before the prince of Troy finishes the work.