Warriors as Mothers

Contained within book 17—the book following Patroclus’s death—are two similes which feature the concept of motherhood.  This may seem strange at first, but as this is the book where everyone fights over Patroclus’s body, the mother similes actually make quite a bit of sense.  While it would not be anyone’s first instinct to say a soldier is “like a mother,” the way the Greek warriors treat Patroclus’s body is with so much love and protection.  The first person to protect the body, Menelaus, is compared to a heifer and her firstborn.  Considering that Patroclus is older than Achilles, which is contrary to what most people think, calling him a “firstborn” is strange in its own right.  Defending the body of Achilles’s comrade is demonstrating a sort of love only a mother knows.  He selflessly defends the body of Patroclus for the sake of Achilles, who has not been in the fight after the altercation with Agamemnon, which shows a great deal of care for the not-as-young-as-we-think man.  Following the motherly Menelaus is Ajax, who gets his own simile of motherhood.  Telamonian Ajax is compared to a lioness who is protecting her cubs from hunters.  Ajax protecting Patroclus’s body makes a bit more sense, as he is closer to Achilles, but to be compared to such a mother is interesting.  He is described in such a ferocious manner as he defends the corpse which can be thought of as “hell hath no fury like a woman,” but in this case, the woman is mother who is, in fact, a warrior.