We know at the beginning of the book that Achilles gets infuriated at Agamemnon for taking his "war-bride" Briseis in exchange for returning Chryseis. At that point he refuses to fight anymore and threatens to take his fighters home. He then prays to his mother, Thetis, to go to Zeus and ask him to punish the Achaeans. Zeus reluctantly agrees to help the Trojans because Hera, his wife, wants the Greeks to win. At the end of chapter 8 Zeus tells Hera that the only way that the Greeks can win is if Achilles returns to the battle. In chapter 9 the Trojans are set to drive the Greeks all the way back to their ships and Agamemnon almost gives up and goes back to Greece but is persuaded by Diomedes to stay. Agamemnon then sends Ajax, Phoenix, and Odysseus to appeal to Achilles to the war by offering him almost anything that he wants. As the Greeks are once again battered again Patroclus goes to see one of the injured Greek generals where he is persuaded to either get Achilles to rejoin the fighting or to at least let Patroclus borrow Achilles armor. Achilles refuses to rejoin the fight but allows him to his armor as long as Patroclus only beats the Trojans back from the ship. When Patroclus enters the fight the tides turns on the Trojans who are slaughtered by Patroclus who chases the Trojans all the way to city walls and accidently kills Zeus' son. In revenge Zeus allows Hector to kill Patroclus as he promised to Hera. If Patroclus had obeyed Achilles orders would he have died? Did he have a choice to stop or was he forced by the gods to go all the way to the Trojan wall? If Achilles had rejoined the fight would Patroclus' life been spared? I think that if Achilles had been the bigger man the innocent life of Patroclus could have been spared. Did Achilles in an abstract sort of way actually ask for Patroclus' death when he asked his mother for Zeus to beat the Achaeans?
P.S. I commented on Regis' blog
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