But now, since I shall not return to my fatherland…
nor did I bring one ray of hope to my Patroclus,
nor to the rest of all my steadfast comrades,
countless ranks struck down by mighty Hector –
No, no, here I sit by the ships…
a useless, dead weight on the good green earth.
– Homer
The Iliad, Book 18, lines 118-123. Achilles in despair, cries to his mother Thetis, that he could not save his friend Patroclus from his doom. He feels complicit through his inaction and refusal to fight, in the deaths of Patroclus and the other comrades at the hands of Hector.