Achilles, Your Wrath is Hurting Patroclus: A Christian Author's Perspective on the Ransom of Hector

In this poem, the author Dracontius composes a rhetorical exercise in which he tries to convince the Trojan War hero Achilles to allow the body of Hector to be ransomed and buried:

A death that is not honored is toxic.

Mother Nature divides

the comings & going of life and death

between the earth

and heaven & hell

with a set boundary.

Heaven does not come for the unburied dead.

Funeral rites do not like to happen in daylight;

The secret rites of the God of the Underworld are sought under the cover of night.

It is not up to you

for the image of your ancestor Aeacus to have to come to you

To criticize you in your sleep

Coming back to camp at night

Raising his fist at you and yelling,

Bitterly blaming you

And saying, fully justified in his criticism:

“Brave Achilles, Famous descendant,

Is this how you,

O Demigod,

A Descendant of the Sea and Sky,

Are supposed to act?

You’re going to deny cremation and burial to the dead?

You won’t let slaughtered youths swim the Acheron river,

Since you forbid their bodies to be buried and honored with tombs?

My holy life brought me in death

to judge the dead for their good & bad deeds. 

Grandson, you aren’t safe from this, either, for you too will come here eventually:

Treat gently the shades!

Minos, Rhadamanthus, and I will seal your fate in the Underworld.

The shades are calling out your name bitterly,

For you deny them the funeral rites they deserve.

Patroclus is denied entry,

He cannot cross over

Until Hector arrives in the Underworld first.

They cannot cross over

Until they are honored with burial.”

Keep your anger in check, Achilles, I beg you.

Hector doesn’t feel

The punishments you are giving out,

You’re only hurting a dead body.

Hector doesn’t feel your punishment,

But it is felt throughout your camp,

As long as you are prolonging this funeral.

You’re hurting your ancestors with your anger,

You’re hurting your dear Patroclus with your torture

Patroclus is the one who suffers the punishment of your wrath.

 

--Dracontius, On Whether It Will Alleviate The Pain If [Achilles] Feeds Patroclus' Murderer to the Beasts & Burds, [At inquires: dolorem meum leniam, percussorem Patrocli canibus et volucribus si dedero laniandum] 115-147

 

Mors neglecta nocet, non sunt commercia vitae

manibus et superis divisit limite mundos

imposito natura parents, non congruit aether

funeribus, nec funus amat sub sole iacere

inferni secreta dei sub nocte petuntur.

 Non tibi per somnos aderit censoris imago

Aeacus in medias veniens ad castra tenebras

Voce manuque furens, et te culpabit amare

asper et increpitans? Et iusta voce notabit:

"Tene, deum soboles, Caeli pelagique nepotem,

 atque Erebi gens clara mei, te fortis Achilles

ista decent? Tumuli caesis et usta negentur?

Nec dabis occisos iuvenes Acheronta natare,

prostratis dum busta negas manesque suplcris

abdicas? Me vita pia promovit ad urnam

 humani generis laudes et crimina quaeram.

Nec tamen hinc secures eris quia noster ad urnam

advenies quandoque nepos: ignoscere manes

ignorant mecumque Minos vel Gnossius illic

Iudicium Rhadamanthus habet commune barathri.

 Nominis invidiam vestra per flumina manes

exagitant, sua iura neges quod morte peremptis

Patroclumque tenent quem nec conscendere cymbam

permittunt nisi primus aquas transcenderit Hector.

et nullum pars nostra sinit transire per undas

ac sorte retinere suam nisi rite sepultum."

Desine bellipotens animos retinere feroces

dux iras depone, precor. Non sentient Hector,

quidquid in hoste furis, lacerum tenuisse cadaver.

Supplicium non Hector habet sed poena Pelasgum

servatur per castra tuis, dum funera punis.

Aeacus invidiam, carus tormenta Patroclus

sustinet et vestri  poenas luit ille doloris.

DRACONTIUS	MAP:
Name:  Dracontius Date:  455 – 505 CE Works:  Hylas	REGION 3
BIO:	Timeline:
Dracontius was a Christian Latin poet from Carthage who lived during the 5th century CE. His works blend Greco-Roman mythology and Christian themes.	BYZANTINE / LATE LATIN

 

The Death of Hippolytus & the Rebirth of Virbius, Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.530-546

"You think you can compare your grief to mine, nymph?

I saw the kingdom where no light shines

I soaked my wounded body in the Stygian waves,

And would have died without the intervention of Apollo’s son

Who brought me back to life;

Against He-Who-Rules the Underworld’s wishes

I was revived through Asclepius’ strong medicines

And with the help of Apollo’s skill.

In order to not attract attention to myself

Diana lifted me up into a cloud

And aged my form so I wouldn’t be recognized

In order to keep me safe.

For a while, she debated on whether she should

Give me a new home in Crete or Delos,

But then put me here [in Italy]

And ordered me to change my name

So I wouldn’t be reminded of my old life.

She told me, “You who were once Hippolytus,

Will now be Virbius!”

From that point on, I’ve dwelled in this grove,

One of the minor gods,

Safe under my lady’s protection

I attend her will.”

 --Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.530-546

 

num potes aut audes cladi conponere nostrae,               530
nympha, tuam? vidi quoque luce carentia regna
et lacerum fovi Phlegethontide corpus in unda,
nec nisi Apollineae valido medicamine prolis
reddita vita foret; quam postquam fortibus herbis
atque ope Paeonia Dite indignante recepi,               535
tum mihi, ne praesens augerem muneris huius
invidiam, densas obiecit Cynthia nubes,
utque forem tutus possemque inpune videri,
addidit aetatem nec cognoscenda reliquit
ora mihi Cretenque diu dubitavit habendam               540
traderet an Delon: Delo Creteque relictis
hic posuit nomenque simul, quod possit equorum
admonuisse, iubet deponere "qui" que "fuisti
Hippolytus," dixit "nunc idem Virbius esto!"
hoc nemus inde colo de disque minoribus unus               545
numine sub dominae lateo atque accenseor illi.'

OVID	MAP:
Name: Publius Ovidius Naso   Date:  43 BCE – 18 CE Works:  Ars Amatoria                Metamorphoses*               Tristia, etc.	REGION  1
BIO:	Timeline:
Ovid was one of the most famous love poets of Rome’s Golden Age. His most famous work, the Metamorphoses, provides a history of the world through a series of interwoven myths. Most of his poetry is erotic in nature; for this reason, he fell into trouble during the conservative social reforms under the reign of the emperor Augustus. In 8 CE he was banished to Bithynia, where he spent the remainder of his life pining for his native homeland.	GOLDEN AGE ROME

Hippolytus Reborn: A Christian Author's Account of Hippolytus

Hippolytus perished by the savage accusation of his stepmother

& was ripped to shreds by his own chariot

When sea monsters were stirring up the waves.

Diana’s wrath refused to tolerate the assault on his purity*;  

She brought Hippolytus back from the dead,

But now he exists with the name Virbius.

  -- Theodolus, Eclogue 125-128 [dated to the 10th century CE]

* pudicitia refers both to his physical chastity as well as his reputation.

Hippolytus saeva perit accusante noverca

Discerptus bigis, focas agitantibus undis.

Damna pudicitiae non pertulit ira Dianae:

Hippolytum revocat; modo nomine Virbius extat.

Two Inscriptions On the Worship of Antinous

#32 

ANTINOΣ ΣΥΝΘΡΟΝΩ ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΑΙΓΥΠΤΩ ΘΕΩΝ Μ ΟΥΛΠΙOC AΠΟΛΛΩNIOΣ ПРОФТНС

Antinoi, pariter-regnans apud Aegyptios deos, M. Oulpios Apollonius Sacerdos

To Antinous, equal-throned among the Egyptian gods, Marcus Oulpius Apollonius Sacerdos Dedicates This...

#31

ANTINOΣ ΣΥΝΘΡΟΝΩ ΤΩΝ ΕΝ ΑΙΓΥ...

Antinoi, pariter-regnans apud Aegy...

To Antinous, equal-throned among the Egy...

--Cagnat, R., ed. Inscriptiones Graecae ad Res Romanas Pertinentes, Vol 1.31-32 (1911)