Grief and rage took Glaucus when he heard. He could not help his friend; his arm was still wounded from Teucer's arrow, so he prayed to Apollo who shoots from afar. Apollo heard him, eased the pain, stopped the black blood, and filled his limbs with fresh strength.
Glaucus then went among the Lycian captains and among the Trojans, and rebuked Hector bitterly. "Hector, you make a brave show, but you forget your allies. Sarpedon is dead, the man who guarded Lycia and Troy with his strength, and you will not even keep the dogs from him."
Hector was stung by the charge and led the Trojans and Lycians hard against the Myrmidons. Both sides crashed together over Sarpedon, and Zeus spread thick darkness over the struggle so his son would not fall without a great fight around him.
First one side and then the other gained ground. Epeigeus, a Myrmidon chief, was killed by Hector with a stone as he bent over a corpse. Meriones and others answered with killings of their own. The work around Sarpedon went on like the noise of woodcutters in a mountain glade.
At last the Achaeans stripped Sarpedon's shining armor, and Patroclus told the Myrmidons to carry it to the hollow ships. Zeus told Apollo to go down from Ida, lift the body from the weapons, wash it in a running river, anoint it with ambrosia, clothe it in immortal cloth, and give it to Sleep and Death, twin brothers, to carry home to broad Lycia for burial.
Apollo obeyed his father. Meanwhile Patroclus, in the pride and folly of his heart, forgot Achilles' command and drove the Trojans and Lycians toward the city, calling to Automedon and the horses.
Who first and who last did Patroclus kill when the gods called him to his doom? Adrestos, Autonoos, Echeklos, Perimos, Epistor, Melanippos, Elasos, Moulios, and Pylartes — and many more, for the Achaeans would have taken Troy by his hands had not Phoebus Apollo stood on the well-built wall.
Three times Patroclus charged toward the angle of the high wall, and three times Apollo thrust him back, striking the bright shield with immortal hands. On the fourth rush the god spoke from the mist and warned him terribly: Troy was not fated to fall to Patroclus, nor even to Achilles yet. Patroclus fell back a little, fearing the far-shooter's anger.
Hector was waiting with his horses inside the Scaean gates, uncertain whether to drive out again or call the army into the city. Apollo came in the likeness of Asios, a mother's brother dear to Hector, and told him to turn his horses on Patroclus; Zeus might yet grant him glory. Hector obeyed and drove out again, while Apollo struck panic among the Argives.