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.