Achille/Patroclo

Speranza

The Achille/Patroclo relationship was apparently first interpreted as sexual in the fifth century.

Plato blames Aeschylus for making Achilles the lover of Patroclus.

Aeschylus, cited by Plutarco:

"You had no reverence for the holiness of thighs, ungrateful after all our frequent kisses."

Aeschylus also speaks of

"homilia", association, but also 'coitus', "of your thighs".

These words are probably uttered by Achilles standing over the cadaver of Patroclus, whom he blames for not having remained alive at his side.

Bodily contact is here evoked with a clarity, not matched before Solon, who celebrated the erastes with these words: "So long as he loves boys in the lovely bloom of youth, desiring the sweetness of thighs and mouth."

----