The Iliad Friendship Quotes

They were afraid, they held the king in awe
and stood there, silent. Not a word to Achilles.
not a question. But he sensed it all in his heart,
their fear, their charge, and broke the silence for them:
"Welcome. couriers! Good heralds of Zeus and men.
here, come closer. You have done nothing to me.
You are not to blame. No one but Agamemnon –
he is the one who sent you for Briseis.
Go, Patroclus, Prince, bring out the girl."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 390-398. When Agamemnon’s messengers arrive at Achilles’s camp to take Briseis, looking fearful, Achilles attempts to put at ease. Offering a hand of friendship, he assures them that he attributes no blame to them, but to Agamemnon alone. He orders his close friend and confidant Patroclus to bring out the girl.

Imagine – I and Achilles, wrangling over a girl,
battling man-to-man. And I, I was the first
to let my anger flare. Ah if the two of us
could ever think as one, Troy could delay
her day of death no longer, not one moment.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 2, lines 448-452. Speaking to his counselor Nestor, Agamemnon expresses some regret for having argued with Achilles – "wrangling over a girl," as he puts it. He knows how valuable the Trojan hero is to the Achaean war effort. If only he and Achilles could work together they could take Troy in a day, Agamemnon says, almost in a spirit of friendship for the man he quarreled with.

When he heard that, Diomedes’ spirits lifted.
Raising his spear, the lord of the war cry drove it home,
planting it deep down in the earth that feeds us all
and with winning words he called out to Glaucus,
the young captain, "Splendid – you are my friend,
my guest from the days of our grandfathers long ago!
…Come, let us keep clear of each other’s spears,
even there in the thick of battle. Look,
plenty of Trojans there for me to kill,
your famous allies too, any soldier the god
will bring in range or I can run to ground.
And plenty of Argives too – kill them if you can.
But let’s trade armor. The men must know our claim:
we are sworn friends from our fathers’ days till now!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 6, lines 253-258, 270-277. This is a very strange meeting on a battlefield. Achaean warrior Diomedes and Lycian army captain Glaucus meet as enemies but end up becoming sworn friends. On hearing the story of Glacus’s heroic grandfather, Diomedes plants his spear in the earth, calls Glaucus his friend and offers to trade armor with him.

Come,
let us give each other gifts, unforgettable gifts,
so any man may say, Trojan soldier or Argive,
"First they fought with heart-devouring hatred,
then they parted, bound by pacts of friendship."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 7, lines 345-348. Sometimes on the battlefield, there is a fine line between enemies and friends. After agreeing to a truce in their duel until the next day because night falls, Hector suggests to Great Ajax that they exchange gifts. This shows that the Trojan hero believes his sworn enemy is due a certain respect and honor as a worthy opponent.

"Welcome! Look, dear friends have come our way –
I must be sorely needed now – my dearest friends
in all the Achaean armies, even in my anger."
So Prince Achilles hailed and led them in,
sat them down on settles with purple carpets.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 237-241. Achilles welcomes the embassy of Odysseus, Great Ajax and Phoenix to his tent. They are there on behalf of Agamemnon to try to heal the quarrel between him and Achilles and to offer him gifts. Despite his anger at Agamemnon, Achilles is still on friendly terms with the king’s ambassadors.

How his spirit leapt when he heard those horrors –
and buckling his gleaming armor round his body,
out he rushed to war.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 723-725. The Myrmidon warrior Phoenix tells Achilles the story of the great Aetolian warrior prince Meleager, that foreshadows Achilles’s return to battle. During the Aetolians war with the Curetes, Meleager left the battle to stay in bed with his wife Cleopatra. Eventually Cleopatra prevailed on him to rush back to war by "recounting all the griefs that fall to people whose city’s seized and plundered – the men slaughtered, citadel burned to rubble, enemies dragging the children, raping the sashed and lovely women." Achilles will also rush back to war when the grief falls close to home with the killing of his closest friend Patroclus by Hector.

But standing clear of the fray Achilles’ horses wept
from the time they first had sensed their driver’s death,
brought down in the dust by man-killing Hector.
…But both balked at returning now to the ships
moored at the Hellespont’s far-reaching shore
or galloping back to fight beside the Argives.
Staunch as a pillar planted tall above a barrow,
standing sentry over some lord or lady’s grave-site,
so they stood, holding the blazoned chariot stock-still,
their heads trailing along the ground, warm tears flowing
down from their eyes to wet the earth…the horses mourned,
longing now for their driver, their luxurious manes soiled,
streaming down from the yoke-pads, down along the yoke.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 17, lines 494-496, 499-508. Although clear of the fighting, Achilles’ immortal horses sense the death of Patroclus and begin to weep and mourn – Achilles himself has yet to learn of the loss of his friend. The horses’ emotional reaction speaks to the close love bond and friendship bond that binds Achilles and Patroclus.

If only strife could die from the lives of gods and men
and anger that drives the sanest man to flare in outrage –
bitter gall, sweeter than dripping streams of honey,
that swarms in people’s chests and blinds like smoke.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 126-129. Achilles is struggling to process the death of his beloved friend Patroclus. He curses the anger that kept him from protecting his greatest friend. He wishes that conflict and anger could vanish from the lives of men and gods. A number of similes are used here, comparing the bigger gall of anger to smoke, and also strangely to the sweetness of honey.

"Hephaestus, come –
look who’s here! Thetis would ask a favor of you!"
And the famous crippled Smith exclaimed warmly,
"Thetis – here? Ah then a wondrous, honored goddess
comes to grace our house! Thetis saved my life
when the mortal pain came on me after my great fall,
thanks to my mother’s will, that brazen bitch,
she wanted to hide me – because I was a cripple.
…And here is Thetis now, in our own house!
So I must do all I can to pay her back,
the price for the life she saved…
the nymph of the sea with sleek and lustrous locks,
Quickly, set before her stranger’s generous fare
while I put away my bellows and all my tools."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 18, lines 457-464, 474-479. Goddess Charis tells the divine smith and god of fire, Hephaestus, that Thetis has come to call. Hephaestus is full of gratitude for the friendship of Thetis, whom he said saved his life after his mother Hera threw him out of Olympus because he was crippled.

when the sun goes down,
lay on a handsome feast – once we’ve avenged our shame.
Before then, for me at least, neither food nor drink
will travel down my throat, not with my friend dead,
there in my shelter, torn to shreds by the sharp bronze…
His feet turned to the door; stretched out for burial,
round him comrades mourning.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 247-253. Achilles has no taste for food and refuses to eat before going into battle, because he is mourning his dead friend Patroclus. He vows to only feast after they have avenged their shame.

Patroclus –
dearest joy of my heart, my harrowed, broken heart!
I left you alive that day I left these shelters,
now I come back to find you fallen, captain of armies!
So grief gives way to grief, my life one endless sorrow!
The husband to whom my father and noble mother gave me,
I saw him torn by the sharp bronze before our city,
and my three brothers – a single mother bore us:
my brothers, how I loved you! –
you all went down to death on the same day…
But you, Patroclus, you would not let me weep,
not when the swift Achilles cut my husband down,
not when he plundered the lordly Mynes’ city –
not even weep! No, again and again you vowed
you’d make me godlike Achilles’ lawful, wedded wife,
you would sail me west in your warships, home to Phthia
and there with the Myrmidons hold my marriage feast.
So now I mourn your death – I will never stop –
you were always kind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 338-356. Briseis speaks for the only time in The Iliad. She clearly had a close relationship with Patroclus, whose great kindness she pays a touching tribute to. Standing over the dead Greek warrior’s body, she reveals that he vowed to make her the wife of godlike (simile) Achilles. He also comforted her when her husband and three brothers whom she loved were cut down in war. Behind the ferocious warrior, there was a gentle heart.

Ah god, time and again, my doomed, my dearest friend,
you would set before us a seasoned meal yourself,
here in our tents, in your quick and expert way,
when Argive forces rushed to fight the Trojans,
stampeding those breakers of horses into rout.
But now you lie before me, hacked to pieces here
while the heart within me fasts from food and drink
though stores inside are full –
I’m sick with longing for you!
There is no more shattering blow that I could suffer.
Not even if I should learn of my own father’s death,
…or the death of my dear son, reared for me in Seyros,
if Prince Neoptolernus is still among the living.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 374-384, 388-389. Lamenting the loss of his dear friend Patroclus, a highly emotional Achilles is so sick that he doesn’t eat or drink. His deep love for his friend is expressed when he says that could not suffer a more devastating loss, not even if he learned of the death of his own father or dear son.

The games were over now. The gathered armies scattered,
each man to his fast ship, and fighters turned their minds
to thoughts of food and the sweet warm grip of sleep.
But Achilles kept on grieving for his friend,
the memory burning on…
and all-subduing sleep could not take him,
not now, he turned and twisted, side to side,
he longed for Patroclus’ manhood, his gallant heart –
What rough campaigns they’d fought to an end together.
what hardships they had suffered, cleaving their way
through wars of men and pounding waves at sea.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 1-11. The games celebrating Patroclus are over, but the grieving Achilles cannot sleep. He twists and turns and longs for his beloved friend and comrade-in-arms, with whom he had shared many campaigns and hardhips. Clearly a very strong bond of friendship and love bound the two men.

"Revere the gods, Achilles! Pity me in my own right,
remember your own father! I deserve more pity…
I have endured what no one on earth has ever done before
I put to my lips the hands of the man who killed my son."
Those words stirred within Achilles a deep desire
to grieve for his own father. Taking the old man’s hand
he gently moved him back. And overpowered by memory
both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely
for man-killing Hector, throbbing, crouching
before Achilles’ feet as Achilles wept himself,
now for his father, now for Patroclus once again,
and their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 588-599. Priam begs Achilles for his son Hector’s body so that he can give it proper funeral rites. When the Trojan king pleads with Achilles to remember his own father, the Achaean hero’s heart is touched and he weeps for his father and his slain friend Patroclus. His mood turns from rage to compassion.

Hector! Dearest to me of all my husband’s brothers –
my husband, Paris, magnificent as a god…
he was the one who brought me here to Troy –
Oh how I wish I’d died before that day!
But this, now, is the twentieth year for me
since I sailed here and forsook my own native land,
yet never once did I hear from you a taunt, an insult.
But if someone else in the royal halls would curse me,
one of your brothers or sisters or brothers’ wives
trailing their long robes, even your own mother –
not your father, always kind as my own father –
why, you’d restrain them with words, Hector,
you’d win them to my side…
you with your gentle temper, all your gentle words.
And so in the same breath I mourn for you and me,
my doom-struck, harrowed heart. Now there is no one left
in the wide realm of Troy, no friend to treat me kindly –
all the countrymen cringe from me in loathing!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 24, lines 895-912. Even Helen, the captive woman snatched from her husband by Hector’s brother Paris, has warm words to say about the dead Hector. She pays tribute to his kindness, gentleness and friendship during the twenty years she has been gone from her native land. Now she has no friend left in Troy to treat her kindly, she laments.
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