Brave Diomed son of Tydeus has been hit with a spear, while famed Ulysses and Agamemnon have received sword-wounds; Eurypylus again has been struck with an arrow in the thigh; skilled apothecaries are attending to these heroes, and healing them of their wounds; are you still, O Achilles, so inexorable?
May it never be my lot to nurse such a passion as you have done, to the baning of your own good name.
Who in future story will speak well of you unless you now save the Argives from ruin?
You know no pity; knight Peleus was not your father nor Thetis your mother, but the grey sea bore you and the sheer cliffs begot you, so cruel and remorseless are you.

If however you are kept back through knowledge of some oracle, or if your mother Thetis has told you something from the mouth of Jove, at least send me and the Myrmidons with me, if I may bring deliverance to the Danaans.

Let me moreover wear your armour; the Trojans may thus mistake me for you and quit the field, so that the hard-pressed sons of the Achaeans may have breathing time--which while they are fighting may hardly be.

We who are fresh might soon drive tired men back from our ships and tents to their own city." He knew not what he was asking, nor that he was suing for his own destruction.

Achilles was deeply moved and answered, "What, noble Patroclus, are you saying?
I know no prophesyings which I am heeding, nor has my mother told me anything from the mouth of Jove, but I am cut to the very heart that one of my own rank should dare to rob me because he is more powerful than I am.