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Patroclus is the name of Achilles' best friend and lover. He died at Hector's hand when he went to battle in Achilles' armor. When Patroclus died, Achilles went into battle, killing almost all of Troy's best warriors. He was reckless, and hated Hector for killing his love, and vowed to kill Hector himself. Legend even says that the gods themselves had to intervene, because Achilles' rage would have made Troy fall prematurely. Before Achilles died, he ordered that he and Patroclus's ashes would be mixed, and they get buried together. Not to mention, Homer and Plato both told the story with Patroclus and Achilles as lovers.
Patroclus was the lover of Achilles.
Well, the thing is, the Greek word Homer used to describe Patroclus in relationship to Achilles, philia, can be interpreted as either lover, friend, squire, or second-in-command. So, since the Iliad was in existence, it has been rendered in all of the ways mentioned above many times. For the whole low-down, search Achilles and Patroclus on Wikipedia. Sometimes, Wikipedia doesn't have the most accurate information, but it is all presented nicely in the case of this article!http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles_and_PatroclusThis might be better for a personal impression comment, but I have to say that I strongly believe they were not "just friends" or "lovers". They were comrades, brothers in arms--something more than friends, but not lovers. If you want clarification on what I mean, read Jonathan Shay's book Achilles In Vietnam. He puts it far clearer than I can, but I'm afraid we'll probably never know!

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