パトロクロスの死

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In the description of Patroklos' death (Π 788-858) Apollo overcomes the hero with his own hand and knocks down his arms to earth, at the same time Euphorbos strikes him with a spear before Hektor give him a death blow. It seems, however, to be no great honor for Hektors to kill his enemy who is already wounded by the other hero, but there arises also the another question how he could rob him of his arms (cf. P 13, 125, esp. 205) if these were knocked down to earth. Now the present writer infers from many passages in the Iliad that there must have existed a poem on the death of Achilles which in many ways influenced the description of Patroklos' death. In the Iliad Apollo's intervention is to be explained from the fact that the hero wears Achilles' arms which the gods gave to Peleus as a wedding gift and that there is no Trojan who could check his advance. That the arms given or made by a god possess special qualities can be seen in many allusions to the invulnerability of Achilles' old and new arms, especially in the scene of 'kerostasia' where the scales of Zeus finally decide the fate of the heroes who both wear invincible arms. As for the fact that Apollo overcomes the hero with his own hand, it is unparalleled in the Greek epic and shows a most striking contrast to the death of Achilles. The latter is killed, as he tries to take Troy, by Apollo and Paris, and there can be no doubt that both, being noted for archery, used bows as weapons to overcome him. The difference, however, lies in that Patroklos does not wear his own, but Achilles' arms and that in a battle of those days the lending of one's arms necessarily leads to a disguise (cf. Π 41 f, 278 f) which may, however, be revealed eventually. Indeed, in the case of Patroklos the disguise and recognition is almost suppressed, with an evident intention on the part of the poet to heighten the effect of the hero's aristeia (for the disguise in a battle is contrary to the epic conception of a hero who tries to gain a good name for himself). But a close scrutiny of Patroklos' death shows that the stripping of his arms originally meant the recognition of a disguised hero. The poet of the Iliad, while he suppressed the disguise of Patroklos, used the motif of recognition to describe more vividly the tragic death of the hero struck with ατη. The role of Euphorbos, therefore, is but an extention of Apollo's act: he strikes Patroklos in the very same place as does the god who takes it upon himself to show who the hero really is. It follows then that here Apollo (=Euphorbos) and Hektor take over the roles played by Apollo and Paris in the death of Achilles. The contradictions as seen above are but the results of this development. The present writer sees the same motif of recognition, assuredly a popular one in the Greek epic, in Σ 203 ff where Achilles reveals himself to the Trojans and routs them with his shouts. For Iris explicitly bids him to show himself, i. e. to show that he is still alive, although Hektor has taken and put on his arms, a symbol of heroic honor and quality. Finally to be noted are many parallels between the death of Patroklos and that of Hektor: the death scenes of the two heroes etc.
日本西洋古典学会の論文
1969-03-25

著者

岡道男
京都大学

パトロクロスの死

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