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Deathless Gods Who Gov. Earth, Sea, and Sky. That is what Alexander of Macedon asks.

For years, ever since he heard the tales of Troy, he has dreamt of seeing it. A place

suffused with history, with legend. And now that he is here, he can feel the muses close by.

The lap of the tide, the whistle of the wind. These are their singing, their dancing,

their playing of the lyre and the flute. But there is one story he wishes to hear above all others.

That is why he has left his army in the plane below and climbed to this weather-beating monument

upon the coast. He has not gone alone. He climbs with a man his own age,

his feistyon, his companion, his confidant, his lover. They work together to shed their armor.

And the process is quick. They are accustomed to the angle of the straps upon each other's

gilded grooves, the position of the ties upon each other's bronze blades. They disarm

because they wish to stand before the monument not as soldiers, but as men. They come

because they wish to hear the story of Achilles and Patroclus.

It's the ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes your host. And in today's episode,

we're focusing on one of the most well-known heroes of the Trojan War of Homer's Iliad, Achilles.

Now there's so much to Achilles' story from his heel to his clash with Hector and so on and

so forth, but today we're going to be delving into a particular aspect of Achilles' story. And

that is his relationship with Patroclus. This is a part of Achilles' story that has been

discussed again and again and again since ancient Greek times. We're going to be talking about

...