The Hero 37
Achilles is in love with war in a way that Hector (and of course
Thersites) never could be, and as a rule he fi ghts with a brutal
integrity— which makes what happens to him at the hands of Nestor
disturbing. The Greeks are in disarray, being driven toward their
ships by the raging Hector, and Nestor, the aged counselor and war-
rior, who is de cades older than even the oldest fi ghters at Troy, be-
gins to fear that the Trojans will overrun the camp and burn the
ships. So he approaches Patroclus and off ers a plan. Achilles will
not enter the fray— there is nothing to be done about that. But sup-
pose Patroclus were to put on the armor of Achilles and go to battle
in his place? It might inject some confi dence into the fl agging
Greeks. The Trojans might believe that Achilles had returned and
fall back. Patroclus could put on some of Achilles’ valor with the he-
ro’s arms and work wonders on the battlefi eld.
It’s surprising that Achilles agrees to the stratagem. Clearly he
loves Patroclus and wants to give him the chance to win glory.
Clearly, too, Achilles is disturbed by what’s happening to his fellow
Greeks in his absence. Achilles assents because he thinks that he
can have it both ways. He can help the Greeks and perhaps, by
proxy, he can even save them. Anything Patroclus accomplishes
in his armor will accrue at least partly to Achilles, and Achilles is
feeling bereft of distinction. (Who is he when he is not fi ghting?)
But even while Achilles enters the fi eld of battle through his double,
he can maintain his grudge against Agamemnon and stay seques-
tered in his tent. It seems a perfect plan.
But it is not the sort of plan that the true hero employs. The true
hero opposes his body and his fi ghting spirit— his essence—to the
bodies and fi ghting spirits of the foes. He arrives on the fi eld as him-
self and he fi ghts as himself. His armor is of major importance to
him—it is his identity. It signifi es his fi erce, highly defended war-
rior essence. Nestor’s plan is pragmatic. The plan demotes essential