Characters
- Ajax — borrows armor; leads Myrmidons under limits
- Automedon — charioteer; yokes the immortal horses
- Myrmidons — follow the false Achilles into battle
- Nestor — earlier counselor of the plan (background)
- Xanthus and Balius — Achilles’ horses yoked for Patroclus
Places
Themes
Narrative
As Trojan fire reaches the ships, Patroclus comes weeping to Achilles. Achilles yields to Nestor’s earlier counsel: Patroclus may put on Achilles’ armor, lead the Myrmidons, and drive the Trojans from the ships—but he must not pursue to Troy or fight without Achilles, lest he diminish Achilles’ honor and draw a god’s anger. Patroclus arms in the famed panoply (all but the spear that only Achilles can wield); Automedon yokes Xanthus and Balius; the Myrmidons swarm out. The borrowed armor will later deceive Hector into thinking Achilles has returned—and will strip from Patroclus’s corpse when he falls.
Catalogue this as the arming-and-permission atom, distinct from Patroclus’s death and from Thetis’s later request for new armor.