Source-groundedThe Iliad
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Item · Individual

Achilles’ armour

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name
Achilles’ armour
Disambiguator
None
Kind
Item
Scope
Individual
Editorial note
Specific disguise-equipment identity in Nestor’s proposed plan.

Aliases

2

armour of Achilles

Alternative name · Direct

armour of the son of Peleus

Alternative name · Direct

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

0

No presence observations in the processed scope.

Claims

13
·Hypothetical

Nestor proposes Patroclus wear Achilles’ armour so Trojans mistake him for Achilles and stop fighting.

See evidence text
“send you into battle clad in his own armour, that the Trojans may mistake you for him”
·Hypothetical

Patroclus proposes wearing Achilles’ armour as a deceptive presentation that may make the Trojans mistake him for Achilles.

See evidence text
“Let me moreover wear your armour; the Trojans may thus mistake me for you and quit the field”
·Direct

Achilles’ armour, worn by Patroclus, comprises silver-clasped greaves, a richly inlaid and studded cuirass, bronze sword, mighty shield, and a well-wrought helmet with a menacing horsehair crest.

See evidence text
“First he greaved his legs with greaves of good make, and fitted with ancleclasps of silver; after this he donned the cuirass of the son of Aeacus, richly inlaid and studded. He hung his silverstudded sword of bronze about his shoulders, and then his mighty shield. On his comely head he set his helmet, well wrought, with a crest of horse-hair that nodded menacingly above it. He grasped two redoubtable spears that suited his hands”
·Direct

Achilles’ armour is violently disordered around Patroclus: Apollo knocks away its horsehair helmet to roll beneath horses begrimed with dust and blood, the shield and band fall, and Apollo loosens the corslet.

See evidence text
“Phoebus Apollo beat the helmet from off his head, and it rolled rattling off under the horses’ feet, where its horse-hair plumes were all begrimed with dust and blood. Never indeed had that helmet fared so before, for it had served to protect the head and comely forehead of the godlike hero Achilles. Now, however, Zeus delivered it over to be worn by Hector. Nevertheless the end of Hector also was near. The bronze-shod spear, so great and so strong, was broken in the hand of Patroclus, while his shield that covered him from head to foot fell to the ground as did also the band that held it, and Apollo undid the fastenings of his corslet.”
·Direct

Achilles’s armour is stripped from Patroclus by Hector and handed to Trojans for transport to the city as Hector’s trophy.

See evidence text
“Hector had stripped Patroclus of his armour, and was dragging him away to cut off his head and take the body to fling before the dogs of Troy. But Ajax came up with his shield like wall before him, on which Hector withdrew under shelter of his men, and sprang on to his chariot, giving the armour over to the Trojans to take to the city, as a great trophy for himself;”
·Reported

Hector identifies Achilles’s armour as the goodly armour he took from Patroclus and is about to put on.

See evidence text
“the goodly armour of Achilles, which I took when I killed Patroclus.”
·Direct

Hector puts on Achilles’s immortal armour, which the gods gave Peleus and aged Peleus gave his son; the narrator adds that the son did not grow old in his father’s armour.

See evidence text
“while he put on the immortal armour of the son of Peleus, which the gods had given to Peleus, who in his age gave it to his son; but the son did not grow old in his father’s armour.”
·Reported

Achilles recalls the wondrous, glorious armour the gods gave Peleus at his marriage to Thetis.

See evidence text
“the wondrous armour, so glorious to behold, which the gods gave to Peleus when they laid you in the couch of a mortal man”
·Reported

Thetis says Achilles’s former armour is in Trojan hands and borne by Hector in triumph.

See evidence text
“your armour is in the hands of the Trojans; Hector bears it in triumph upon his own shoulders”
·Reported

Thetis reports that Achilles put his own armour on Patroclus and lost it when his true comrade fell to the Trojans.

See evidence text
“put his own armour on Patroclus and sent him into the fight with much people after him. All day long they fought by the Scaean gates and would have taken the city there and then, had not Apollo vouchsafed glory to Hector and slain the valiant son of Menoetius after he had done the Trojans much evil. Therefore I am suppliant at your knees if haply you may be pleased to provide my son, whose end is near at hand, with helmet and shield, with goodly greaves fitted with ancleclasps, and with a breastplate, for he lost his own when his true comrade fell at the hands of the Trojans”
·Direct

The armour Hector took from Patroclus protects all his fair flesh except the throat between neck and shoulders.

See evidence text
“all was protected by the goodly armour of which Hector had spoiled Patroclus after he had slain him, save only the throat where the collar-bones divide the neck from the shoulders”
·Direct

The armour taken from Hector’s shoulders is blood-stained when Achilles strips it away.

See evidence text
“then he stripped the blood-stained armour from Hector’s shoulders”
·Direct

The stripped armour is loaded onto Achilles’ chariot.

See evidence text
“he had put the goodly armour on the chariot”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

8
·Hypothetical
“let him send you into battle clad in his own armour, that the Trojans may mistake you for him”
·Direct
“Patroclus put on his armour”
·Direct
“Zeus delivered it over to be worn by Hector”
·Direct
“the armour of Achilles”
·Reported
“Hector when he had killed him stripped the wondrous armour, so glorious to behold, which the gods gave to Peleus”
·Reported
“the Trojans stripped Patroclus of his armour”
·Direct
“the goodly armour of which Hector had spoiled Patroclus after he had slain him”
·Direct
“he stripped the blood-stained armour from Hector’s shoulders”

Passage preview

Book 11 · Passage 57

‘Such was I among my peers, as surely as ever was, but Achilles is for keeping all his valour for himself; bitterly will he rue it hereafter when the host is being cut to pieces. My good friend, did not Menoetius charge you thus, on the day when he sent you from Phthia to Agamemnon? Ulysses and I were in the house, inside, and heard all that he said to you; for we came to the fair house of Peleus while beating up recruits throughout all Achaea, and when we got there we found Menoetius and yourself, and Achilles with you. The old knight Peleus was in the outer court, roasting the fat thigh-bones of a heifer to Jove the lord of thunder; and he held a gold chalice in his hand from which he poured drinkofferings of wine over the burning sacrifice. You two were busy cutting up the heifer, and at that moment we stood at the gates, whereon Achilles sprang to his feet, led us by the hand into the house, placed us at table, and set before us such hospitable entertainment as guests expect. When we had satisfied ourselves with meat and drink, I said my say and urged both of you to join us. You were ready enough to do so, and the two old men charged you much and straitly. Old Peleus bade his son Achilles fight ever among the foremost and outvie his peers, while Menoetius the son of Actor spoke thus to you: ‘My son,’ said he, ‘Achilles is of nobler birth than you are, but you are older than he, though he is far the better man of the two. Counsel him wisely, guide him in the right way, and he will follow you to his own profit.’ Thus did your father charge you, but you have forgotten; nevertheless, even now, say all this to Achilles if he will listen to you. Who knows but with heaven’s help you may talk him over, for it is good to take a friend’s advice. If, however, he is fearful about some oracle, or if his mother has told him something from Jove, then let him send you, and let the rest of the Myrmidons follow with you, if perchance you may bring light and saving to the Danaans. And let him send you into battle clad in his own armour, that the Trojans may mistake you for him and leave off fighting; the sons of the Achaeans may thus have time to get their breath, for they are hard pressed and there is little breathing time in battle. You, who are fresh, might easily drive a tired enemy back to his walls and away from the tents and ships.’