1. Key word for this dialogue: therapōn 'attendant, minister; ritual substitute' (this is the definition in the Glossary)
A word related to therapōn is therapeuein 'heal, cure' (compare the English borrowings "therapy," "therapeutic," etc.).
Passage A: Iliad XVI 233-248:
{Achilles is praying to Zeus}: "King Zeus," he cried, "lord of Dodona, god of the Pelasgoi, who dwells afar, you who hold wintry Dodona in your sway, where your prophets the Selloi dwell around you with their feet unwashed and their couches made upon the ground - if you heard me when I prayed to you aforetime, and did me honor while you sent disaster on the Achaeans, grant me now the fulfillment of yet this further prayer. I shall stay here at my assembly [agōn] of ships, but I shall send my comrade into battle at the head of many Myrmidons. Grant, O all-seeing Zeus, that victory may go with him; put your courage into his heart that Hektor may learn whether my attendant [therapōn] is man enough to fight alone, or whether his might is only then so indomitable when I myself enter the turmoil of war. Afterwards when he has chased the fight and the cry of battle from the ships, grant that he may return unharmed, with his armor and his comrades, fighters in close combat." Thus did he pray, and all-counseling Zeus heard his prayer. Part of it he did indeed grant him - but not the whole. He granted that Patroklos should thrust back war and battle from the ships, but refused to let him come safely out of the fight.
Patroklos is the generic therapōn of Achilles, as we see from the context of Iliad XVI 165 here.
Should we interpret therapōn in this context as (a) 'attendant' or (b) 'ritual substitute'? (Review the definitions of therapōn in the Glossary.) My suggested answer: both. Patroklos is the 'attendant' of Achilles on the surface, but he is his 'ritual' substitute in the deeper meaning of the Master Narrative.
Patroklos is īsos Arēi 'equal to Ares' at XI 604; he is likewise equated with Ares at XVI 784. Patroklos is daimoni īsos 'equal to a daimōn' at XVI 705 and 786. As one who is 'equal to Ares', he is the generic warrior, the generic war hero. But here his 'equal' not only to Ares but also to Apollo. The identification with Apollo, however, is not spelled out, since the word daimōn masks the identity of the god.
As one who is also equal to Apollo at the moment of his death, Patroklos participates in a specialized god-hero relationship. By being equal to Ares at the moment of his death, Patroklos participates in a generic god-hero relationship that is typical of war heroes. In identifying with Ares / Apollo here, Patroklos is experiencing something that will later be experienced by Achilles himself, who will also be identifying with Ares / Apollo at the moment of his own heroic death (not seen in the Iliad). So Patroklos is substituting for the main hero of the narrative, Achilles, whose specialized ritual antagonist is Apollo (besides his generalized ritual antagonist, Ares).
In considering this argument, make sure you have read the on-line essay by Nagy,
"Homer and Greek Myth"
Also
"Lyric and Greek Myth"
Passage B: Iliad XI 599-606
Achilles saw and took note, for he was standing on the stern of his ship watching the hard stress [ponos] and struggle of the fight. He called from the ship to his comrade Patroklos, who heard him in the tent and came out looking like Ares himself [literally, īsos Arēi 'equal to Ares']; here indeed was the beginning of the ill that presently befell him. "Why," said he, "Achilles do you call me? what do you want with me?"
Note the underlined part of the translation. Here Homeric poetry declares that the application of the epithet (specialized adjective) 'equal to Ares' will doom Patroklos to death.
A generic warrior is called a therapōn of Ares. Note the expression therapontes Arēos, for example at Iliad II 110: Butler translates as "squires" of Ares. Generically, the hero as warrior dies for Ares. Specifically, the hero as warrior dies for his divine antagonist.
Generically, Achilles would be a therapōn of Ares; specifically, however, we can say that he is a therapōn of Apollo, because it is Apollo who will directly kill him (see the plot summary of the Aithiopis epic, which you can find in the Sourcebook).
While the therapōn of Apollo must be Achilles, the therapōn of Achilles is, to repeat, Patroklos. For a passage where Patroklos is therapōn 'companion-in-arms' or 'comrade' of Achilles, see again XVI 165
Patroklos must die for Achilles, who must die for Apollo.
The death of Patroklos is via Ares generically but also via Apollo personally.
At the moment when Patroklos dies, he is called daimoni īsos 'equal to a daimōn' at XVI 705 and 786. At this precise moment he is in sacred space. Since war is ritual, the battleground is for the warrior a sacred space. Patroklos is doomed for death, and that is why he is 'equal to a daimōn'. In the case of warriors, being godlike is to have martial fury, to experience a "warp spasm." To experience a "warp spasm" is be beside oneself, "berserk" (Old Norse concept). To be possessed. Note that Ares is not the god of war per se, but the god of martial fury.
An earlier "dress-rehearsal": Diomedes as daimoni īsos 'equal to a daimōn' at V 438 and 459.
Compare also the context of pros daimona 'face-to-face with the daimōn' at XVII 98.
In all these situations, the use of the word daimōn is mystical in not naming the god - but it is ostentatiously mystical. By that I mean that the identify of the daimōn is obvious. It is Apollo.
Here is the ritual background of the word therapōn: it was borrowed from Anatolian languages (Hittite, Luvian) sometime in the 2nd millennium BCE. The corresponding word in these languages means: 'ritual substitute': someone who is very close to the king must die in place of the king, on a seasonally recurring basis.
See Nagy's encyclopedia article "The Epic Hero," on-line at the Heroes site.
The concept of transfert du mal: evil must be passed on, to a sacrificial victim.
In Greek visual art, Patroklos is represented as a sacrificial ram, with his throat slit open.
The Greek word pharmakon means 'drug-cure, drug-medicine' (compare the English borrowings "pharmacy," "pharmacology," etc.); there is also a related word, pharmakos, which designates a special kind of person. I ask: can you guess what kind of a person a pharmakos would be? Answer: 'scapegoat'.
Simone Weil was a philosopher who reflected about le transfert du mal. In "Void and Compensation," she writes about "the wish to see others suffer exactly what we are suffering."
More from Weil:
a) From "Void and Compensation": "The tendency to spread evil beyond oneself: I still have it! Beings and things are not sacred enough to me. May I never sully anything, even though I be utterly transformed into mud. To sully nothing, even in thought. Even in my worst moments I would not destroy a Greek statue or a fresco by Giotto. Why anything else then? Why, for example, a moment in the life of a human being who could have been happy for that moment."
b) From the same work: "The wish to see others suffer exactly what we are suffering. It is because of this that, except in periods of social instability, the spite of those in misfortune is directed against their fellows. That is a factor making for social stability."
c) From the same work: "The tendency to spread the suffering beyond ourselves. If through excessive weakness we can neither call forth pity nor do harm to others, we attack what the universe itself represents for us. Then every good or beautiful thing is like an insult."
d) From "Human Personality": "When harm is done to a man, real evil enters into him; not merely pain and suffering, but the actual horror of evil. Just as men have the power of transmitting good to one another, so they have the power to transmit evil."
{Here is the essence of le transfert du mal. - according to Nagy}
e) From "Evil": "The innocent victim who suffers knows the truth about his executioner, the executioner does not know it."
f) From the same work: "A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves. That is why we are inclined to commit such acts as a way of deliverance."
Achilles considers Patroklos to be the most philos of them all.
Review: ascending scale of affection in the Meleager narrative (the compressed narrative about Meleager is equivalent to the expanded narrative about Achilles; micronarrative vs. macronarrative). Notice that the compressed narrative (micronarrative) is called klea andrōn hērōōn 'glories [= kleos plural] of men, heroes [hērōes]' at IX 524-525, and that this narrative is told in the midst of philoi (IX 528) {that is, the narrative is told to an audience who are presumed to be philoi}
Review: philos and the ascending scale of affection: elders, priests, father, sisters, mother, companions [hetairoi], {wife}
Passage C {repeated from Dialogue 1; but now different elements are being emphasized}, Iliad IX 524-528
{Phoenix is speaking to Achilles and the other assembled heroes}: [Thus] we have heard in song the glories [klea] of heroes of old time, how they quarreled when they were roused to fury, but still they could be won over by gifts, and fair words could soothe them. I have in my mind an old story - a very old one - and you are all friends [philoi], so I will tell it.
Compare klea andr™n here in Iliad IX 524, the 'glories of heroes of the past', with klea andr™n in Iliad IX 189, the 'glories of heroes of the past'. There it is Achilles himself who is singing, while accompanying himself on the lyre that once belonged to E‘tion.
The Greek word that introduces the Meleager story, houtōs 'thus', is a marker of a form of speech called ainos (so Eduard Fraenkel).
From here on, this word ainos will prove to be essential.
Three qualifications for understanding an ainos: sophoi/agathoi/philoi.
1) sophos 'skilled' or 'wise' indicates MENTAL qualification
2) agathos 'good' or 'noble' indicates MORAL qualification
3) philos 'near-and-dear' indicates EMOTIONAL or AFFECTIVE qualification
The "moral" of the Meleager story is that Meleager's wife is Cleopatra = Kleopatra
The "moral" of the Meleager story for Achilles is that Achilles' most philos companion is Patroklēs or Patrokleēs
What is at stake for Achilles? kleos aphthiton (IX 413)
Here are three alternative views of what is at stake for Achilles:
1) Love of a woman...
Passage D: Iliad IX 340-343 {Achilles is speaking}:
Are the sons of Atreus the only men in the world who love their wives? Any man of common right feeling will love and cherish her who is his own, as I this woman, with my whole heart, though she was but the prize of my spear.
[[We have come a long way from Iliad I, where Briseis was simply the property of Achilles and thus an extension of his honor.]]
2) Love of one's own life...
Passage E: Iliad IX 401-408 {Achilles is speaking}:
My life [psukhē] is more to me than all the wealth of Ilion while it was yet at peace before the Achaeans went there, or than all the treasure that lies on the stone floor of Apollo's temple beneath the cliffs of Pytho [= Delphi]. Cattle and sheep are to be had by raiding, and a man can buy both tripods and horses if he wants them, but when his life [psukhē] has once left him it can neither be bought nor raided back again.
3) Love of one's comrades...
Passage F: Iliad IX 622-638
Ajax son of Telamon then said, "Odysseus, noble son of Laertes, let us be gone, for I see that our journey is vain. We must now take our answer, unwelcome though it be, to the Danaans who are waiting to receive it. Achilles is savage and remorseless; he is cruel, and cares nothing for the love his comrades lavished upon him more than on all the others. He is implacable—and yet if a man's brother or son has been slain he will accept a fine [poinē] by way of amends from him that killed him, and the wrong-doer having paid in full remains in peace in his own locale [dēmos]; but as for you, Achilles, the gods have put a wicked unforgiving spirit in your heart, and this, all over one single girl."
The moral problem is summed up in the micronarrative of the Shield of Achilles, where the narrative zooms in on a lawsuit involving an anomymous plaintiff and an anonymous defendant. The fundamental question here is this: what is the price of a human life?
Passage G) Iliad XVIII
Meanwhile the people were gathered in assembly, for there was a quarrel [neikos], and two men were wrangling about the blood-price [poinē] for a man who had died, the one saying to the dēmos that he had paid damages in full,
[500] and the other refusing to accept anything.
Coda...
For the mentality encoded in the names of Kleopatra and Patroklos, compare Dio Chrysostomos 12.60: "Through their longing for the divine all people have a powerful urge to worship and serve the deity from nearby. Like children that have been taken away from their father and mother, they are filled with a strange longing and often in their dreams reach out their hands to their parents who are not there, so too do people in their love for the gods seek - and properly so because of their benefits and affinity - in all possible ways to be with them and in their company."