The Iliad: Dramatic Irony 2 key examples

The plan to have Patroclus fight on behalf of Achilles is already initiated in Book 11, when Nestor suggests that Patroclus join the battle wearing Achilles's armor. Nestor hopes that the Trojans will take Patroclus for Achilles, hold off from attack, and give Achaea's "exhausted" forces a "second wind." The plan results in an ironic outcome. While it has the intended effect of turning the tide of the war in favor of the Achaeans, it's not for the reason Nestor or anyone else has in mind. When Achilles later decides to rejoin the war in order to avenge Patroclus's death, Patroclus's participation in the becomes marked by situational irony.

At the beginning of Book 16, Patroclus returns to Achilles and begs to let him fight on his behalf. After quoting Patroclus's speech, Homer comments that the character is "condemned to beg for his own death and brutal doom." By foreshadowing Patroclus's death in such straightforward terms, Homer creates dramatic irony. This irony is strengthened when Achilles reaffirms that he won't relax his anger until "the cries and carnage" reaches his own ships. The reader begins to expect that the cries and carnage will reach Achilles's ships when Patroclus dies. Again and again, he instructs Patroclus to "come back" before he reaches Troy—again and again, Homer reinforces the reader's expectation that he won't return alive. 

Not only is there dramatic irony between the reader and characters, but also between the characters themselves. As in many other instances, the immortals know more than the mortals—after all, the immortals play an important role in determining the mortals' fates. The lead-up to Patroclus's death is a good example of this. Later in Book 16, when Achilles prays to Zeus to fill Patroclus's heart with courage and let him come back unharmed, Homer shares that Zeus grants the first prayer, but denies the second one. Achilles knows what will bring him back into war, and that his return to war will result in his own death, but he's in the dark about Patroclus's role in all of it. In a way, the mortals are constant subjects of dramatic irony. Even when they know a piece of their fate, they never have access to Zeus's full picture.

Throughout the poem, the reader follows not only the war on the ground but also the immortals' involvement behind the scenes. In addition to picking sides, the immortals also treat the Trojan War as a kind of proxy war in which they wage their personal, age-old conflicts. To influence the outcome of the war, they orchestrate battles, spur men on, assume the form of mortal fighters, and participate in the fighting themselves. While Hera, Athena, and Poseidon are on the side of the Achaeans, Apollo, Ares, and Aphrodite support the Trojans. Zeus's partiality is less evident. He seems to be on the side of individual fighters more than full armies. Often, the immortals are most passionately involved when they're trying to help or defend their mortal children.

Occasionally, the mortal characters engage with the gods directly. From time to time they even sense when other fighters have gods fighting on their sides—an inkling that often makes them back off. In Book 5, when Athena fights alongside Diomedes, Pandarus warns Aeneas that "he rages so with a god beside him." Later in the same book, when Diomedes realizes that Ares is fighting with Hector, he shouts to his comrades "look, that's Ares beside him now, just like a mortal!" and warns that there's "no use trying to fight the gods in force." Nevertheless, even if they can sense the gods when they're on earth, the mortals generally have no idea what's going on up on Mount Olympus. This dramatic irony puts the reader in the position of an immortal.