The Greeks, who saw the victory on their side, cheered loudly and demanded the observance of the contract. But Zeus himself gave one of the Trojans a nasty act and this directed his arrow against Menelaus. Although this did not kill the king, but he invited the blame for the breach of contract on the Trojans. Even fiercer now both sides fought against each other. Even the gods themselves intervened in the fight. The war god Ares stood on the side of the Trojans and led them into the fight against the Greeks. So impetuously they stormed against them, that the Greeks soon had to retreat bi to their ship's camp. Only Pallas Athene prevented the worse from happening to the Greeks.
For days the battle surged back and forth. Hector was the bravest of Trojans. He challenged the bravest of the Greeks to a duel and so measured himself Ajax with his forces. But both were equal in courage and avidity and so both went apart without a decision again. The Trojans stormed incessantly against the Greeks under Hector's leadership and the first ships were already on fire.
When Patroclus saw the distress of the Greeks, he hurried to his brother in arms, Achilles, to persuade him to give in. But Achilles could not be softened. Eventually, he was able to persuade his friend to give him his sword and armor and let his warriors, the Myrmidons, go into battle. Achilles granted this to his friend. The Myrmidons managed to freeze the heavily beleaguered ships. Above all, Patroclus stormed Achilles' chariot. Fruit sneaked into the hearts of the Trojans because they thought the dreaded hero had returned to battle and they backed away to the city gates.
But now the god Apollon itself intervened in the events and fended off the advance of the hero. With a powerful blow on his back and shoulder, he staggered Patroclus, making it easy for Hector to pierce him with his spear. Mortally wounded, he sank to the ground. As a sign of his triumph Hector put on the armor of the fallen. But in death, Patroclus had already predicted his own death: "Beware, Hector, the fate is already at your side!"
With difficulty the Greeks were able to recover the corpse of their friend and they took them to the ship's camp. Achilles heard in pain of the death of his beloved friend.
Terrible was the wailing of Achilles around the killed friend. Thetis himself, his mother, hurried to comfort him. But for him there could only be some comfort in practicing bloody revenge on Hector, the killer of Patroclus. However, since his armor had fallen into the hands of the Trojans, she asked him to stay away from the fray until the god Hephaestus had forged him a new armor.
