Original subtitles

(dramatic theme music)

(dramatic music)

(soldiers shouting)

(weapons clanging)

(horses neighing)

(soaring music)

(sand rustling)

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- [Narrator] Unbeknownst to anyone,

Apollo has just breathed new strength into Hector.

(dramatic music)

A few seconds ago, he was on the ground, dying,

struck in the chest by Ajax, the great Greek warrior.

From now on, the god's voice will resonate in his soul.

(dramatic music)

At a signal from their leader,

the Trojans return to the fray.

(dramatic music)

They acclaim Apollo

who awakens an immense courage within them.

Led by Hector, they close ranks and charge.

(soldiers shouting)

Now, it is the Greeks who are retreating.

(soldiers shouting)

When they see the son of Priam escape from death,

his head held high, flying along on his horse,

returned from the kingdom of Hades

more powerful than before,

they become frightened and their hearts sink.

(dramatic music)

(weapons clanging)

By the boats, Ajax is fighting single-handedly

like an enraged lion.

(dramatic music)

But he cannot avert disaster.

(soldiers marching)

The Trojans reach the ships.

Torches blaze in the night.

They look like hundreds of stars.

Soon, the fleet will catch fire.

Soon, the Greeks will be thrown into the sea.

(dramatic music)

(somber music)

On the other side of the camp,

Patroclus is at the bedside of the wounded Greek warriors.

Upon the wounds of Ulysses and old Nestor,

Agamemnon and Menelaus, he spreads powders

which ease their dark pain.

(melancholic music)

Patroclus is the cousin of Achilles, the son of Menoetius,

one of the Argonauts who accompanied Jason in his quest

to find the Golden Fleece.

As a child, seized by a terrible rage,

he killed one of his playmates.

He was then exiled to Phthia

where he was raised with the young Achilles.

The two boys grew up together

and it was together that they went off to war in Troy.

Before their departure, Menoetius, Patroclus' father,

asked his son to watch over Achilles

and to always give him wise counsel.

(soldiers shouting)

From the camp, Patroclus hears

the rising clamor, the terror.

The Greeks, his own people,

are falling under the Trojan onslaught.

He rushes to the next tent.

It is that of Achilles'

and the hero is there, his weapons nowhere to hand.

He is playing the lyre.

The Greeks are all about to perish

and he is playing the lyre.

Desperate, Patroclus tears the instrument

from his friend's hands.

His eyes are full of tears.

(ominous music)

Achilles looks at Patroclus for a long time,

this man who is crying like a child.

He tells him that he looks like a little girl

clinging to her mother's skirts,

but he loves him as we love our dearest friends.

Patroclus pulls himself together.

He stares at Achilles as though seeing him

for the first time.

(ominous music)

It's impossible.

This man with the contemptuous face,

full of resentment and anger, cannot be the son

of the illustrious Peleus and the divine Thetis.

He must've been born of a rock to remain unremoved

by the ruin of the Greeks.

(melancholic music)

In a gesture of desperation,

Patroclus kneels before his friend and pleads with him.

If Achilles is determined to dwell on his anger,

why not let him lead the Myrmidons

and lend him his famous armor and weapons?

He, Patroclus, might be the saving light for the Greeks.

Who knows if the Trojans,

taking him for the divine Achilles, won't give up the fight?

(weapons clanging)

The noise of battle is getting closer.

The sound of cries and the clashing blades

can be heard rising up from the shore.

Achilles shakes his head reproachfully.

He admits that his resentment

towards Agamemnon is intractable.

He won't forget the outrage

and he reminds his friend once again

that no man has the right to rob one of his equals

and deprive him of his prize because he has the power.

(sorrowful music)

He will not fight.

Patroclus insists.

Can't Achilles let bygones be bygones?

(sorrowful music)

Can he not put aside his stubborn anger at this moment

when the exhausted Greeks are falling to the fire

and spears of the enemy?

Can he not feel avenged by the disasters

afflicting his people?

Achilles takes pity on his friend.

So be it.

If he wishes it that way,

let Patroclus put on Achilles' armor.

Let him lead the brave Myrmidons into battle

since the Greeks, driven back to their boats,

their hollow vessels, have been confined

to a narrow strip of land.

No doubt the Trojans, seeing him,

will become afraid and retreat.

Let him fight vigorously to save the fleet from ruin.

(sorrowful music)

But after he has driven the enemy far from the ships,

he is not to seek needless glory by pursuing them to Troy

because then, one of the gods will stand in his way

and he will not escape.

'Let the Greeks and Trojans die,'

roars Achilles, full of rage.

And only Patroclus and Achilles survive to enter Troy,

with its mighty walls, together.

(dramatic music)

(sword clangs)

Patroclus has donned Achilles' armor

and joined the Myrmidons.

(dramatic music)

The Myrmidons.

It is said that these ferocious soldiers were once ants

turned by Zeus into men.

Others claim that they take their name from King Myrmidas

whose daughter was seduced by the master of Olympus

who had taken the form of an ant.

And since that day,

the strength of Zeus flows in their veins.

Whatever the case, one thing is certain.

The Myrmidons are the most feared warriors

in all the known world.

(dramatic music)

Achilles walks towards them.

In a firm voice, he orders them to obey Patroclus

as they would himself.

Carried by the wind, the news of the Myrmidons' return

to the fray immediately spreads throughout the ranks

of the Grecian army.

(spears clanging)

Hope is reborn.

All may not be lost.

(crow cawing)

(ominous music)

He has come back.

This is what Cassandra whispers to her brother Paris.

Paris shakes his head, 'Absurd!'

He doesn't believe this rumor.

Achilles couldn't have taken up arms again.

It's impossible.

Even in Troy, everyone knows about the humiliation

inflicted upon him by Agamemnon.

It's a wound that can never heal.

(ominous music)

Cassandra insists.

Achilles is leading his troops into battle again

and soon, he will be facing their brother Hector.

For the last 10 years since the beginning

of this interminable war,

King Priam's eldest son has been Troy's shield.

Without him, nothing, no one, can save the city.

The young woman grasps her brother's arm.

Paris must return Helen to Menelaus.

It is the only way they can hope to appease

the wrath of the Greeks and avoid the tragedy

that she sees approaching in an inevitable fashion.

(fire crackling)

(dramatic music)

Paris flies into a rage.

If he dared, he would slap the sister

who only speaks to prophesy misfortune.

There is no question of Helen leaving Troy.

He will never allow it.

He loves her and the goddess Aphrodite herself

is watching over their union.

Cassandra struggles.

She wants to say something,

but her voice is suddenly drowned out

by the screams of terror rising from the plain.

(dramatic music)

Led by Patroclus, the Myrmidons descend upon the Trojans

with the force of a hurricane.

The Trojans, believing they're seeing Achilles,

the divine Achilles at the head of his troops,

immediately beat a retreat.

Soon, there is not a single Trojan near the Grecian ships.

(dramatic fanfare)

Patroclus leaps forward,

his heart bursting with prodigious valor.

His sword slices off heads, breaks bones.

Corpses piles up around him.

(dramatic music)

The Greeks have regrouped in his wake.

They sweep away everything in their path.

(weapons clanging)

Resolute, Patroclus forgets Achilles' advice.

He intends to pursue the retreating Trojans

to stop them regaining a foothold in their city.

He charges

and slaughters them one after the other.

(ominous music)

Suddenly, a chariot appears in front of him.

A man jumps out, clad in a brass helmet and breastplate

and holding two spears.

(dramatic music)

It is Sarpedon, the king of the Lycians,

one of the most valiant defenders of Troy.

It was he who pierced young Diomedes with his spear

in the heart of the battle

as well as the king of kings Agamemnon.

Sarpedon, the son of Zeus and of beautiful Europa,

whom the master of Olympus once carried off

in the guise of a bull.

(somber music)

Patroclus has thrown his spear

and killed Sarpedon's charioteer.

Now, the two men rush at each other.

(spears clanging)

(dramatic music)

(spears clanging)

(thunder rumbling)

(thunder claps)

On Olympus, Zeus shudders.

He seizes the aegis, ready to strike down

the impudent mortal who dares to attack his son,

when Hera, full of anger, restrains him.

(melancholic music)

How can Zeus, the god of the gods,

dare to rescue Sarpedon when he has prohibited

all the gods from intervening in the fray?

Is it true?

Does Zeus want to spare a mere mortal,

long since doomed by fate, from a cruel death?

Let him beware

because the order of things will be forever disturbed.

It is an imperious and invisible power

which all the gods must obey, even Zeus.

Destiny.

The moment when Sarpedon will be sent

to the kingdom of the dead by Patroclus' spear

has been fixed since the hour of his birth.

(spears clanging)

This moment is coming.

Zeus must accept what is written.

(dramatic music)

Patroclus pulls the bronze spear from his adversary's chest,

releasing both its tip and Sarpedon's spirit.

(soaring music)

Patroclus sets off in pursuit of the Trojans.

(dramatic music)

Three times, he storms the walls

over which Apollo keeps watch.

(dramatic music)

Three times, he is hurled back down.

(dramatic music)

(armor rattling)

Hidden by a thick mist, invisible to the eyes of mortals,

the terrible god of light comes to him

through the brutal fray.

He stops behind Patroclus.

(dramatic music)

(swooshing)

Patroclus can no longer feel his limbs.

His vision becomes cloudy.

He can hardly see the man

walking straight towards him, Hector.

With his spear, Hector strikes him in the lower abdomen

and rams the bronze tip in up to the hilt.

(dramatic music)

Patroclus hits the ground with a crash

and sinks in an instant into the chasm of death.

(dramatic music)

Hector takes the dead hero's magnificent armor for himself

as is the custom.

From now on, he will continue the fight,

equipped with Achilles' armor.

Then he drags the corpse of Patroclus towards Troy.

(dramatic music)

Immediately, the Greeks rush to defend the body.

Menelaus is at their head, followed by Ajax.

To abandon the body of Patroclus,

to deprive him of the sacred rituals

that accompany a funeral,

would be to condemn him to the underworld.

His soul would never find rest.

(soaring music)

What's more, thinks Menelaus, by saving Patroclus' body,

they will earn Achilles' gratitude.

(horses neighing) (weapons clanging)

The Trojan troops join in

and a sinister battle begins over the corpse.

(soldiers shouting)

(footsteps crunching)

(sorrowful music)

As soon the messenger crosses

the threshold of his tent, Achilles knows.

No one has dared to bring him the news.

Old Nestor's son has therefore been instructed

to tell Achilles of the death of Patroclus.

(sorrowful music)

Ravaged by grief, Achilles fills his hands with ashes,

spreads them on his head, and blackens his face with them.

(sorrowful music)

Distraught, he pulls out his hair and rolls in the dust.

(sorrowful music)

Deeply moved, Nestor's son retires,

leaving the warrior to his despair.

(sorrowful music)

A terrible lamentation rises up to the heavens

and reaches the depths of the sea

where it is heard by his mother Thetis.

Thetis flies to him.

She is now in Achilles' tent.

(sorrowful music)

She takes her son in her arms

and he tells her of Patroclus' death.

(sorrowful music)

He tells her of the loss of his sacred armor

and his weapons.

He tells her of his unbearable, interminable pain.

(dramatic music)

Thetis listens to Achilles in silence.

Then in a soft voice,

she reminds him that everything was done

according to his own wishes.

He wished that Agamemnon and the Greeks,

deprived of his help, would be driven back

and suffer the terrible penalties.

(arrow swooshes)

Achilles admits that this is true.

But at no time had he envisaged the loss

of the person he loved most in the world,

Patroclus, his double.

(dramatic music)

From now on, he will live only to avenge his death.

Hector will perish under his blows.

(sword swooshes)

Then Thetis reminds him of the Oracle,

a glorious but brief life.

Achilles interrupts the sobs of his mother.

He has made his choice.

He knows what to expect if he returns to battle.

He is ready to accept death the day that Zeus

and the other gods decide that he must die.

But before that, Hector will perish by his hand.

(ominous music)

Thetis holds back her tears.

Before sunrise, she will be back with new armor,

more splendid, more formidable

than that being worn today by Hector.

(metal clanging)

Armor forged by the god of the blacksmiths, Hephaestus,

which no one will be able to pierce.

(soaring music)

(dramatic theme music)