By dismissing Patroclus’s actions, Pyrrhus is suggesting that dependence on someone else is inherently dishonorable, which again proves that he doesn’t understand love. Odysseus’s response is both ironic and meta-textual: he
will be more famous than Pyrrhus, as the titular character of Homer’s
Odyssey, while Pyrrhus is only a minor character in Greek mythology. Further, Odysseus’s fame is based in part on his tricky intellect, but also for his steadfast love for his wife and relentless efforts to return to her. Odysseus’s fame is based on love, which Pyrrhus scoffs at and can’t understand. Ultimately, Odysseus is right that unexpected people become famous, which means that Pyrrhus’s ideas about honor and legacy—the same ideas Achilles had earlier in the novel—are wrong. Odysseus’s kindness in making this effort is genuinely honorable, whereas the Greeks’ ideas about honor—as embodied in Pyrrhus—will seem cruel someday. The reason Odysseus is capable of being genuinely honorable is that he, like Achilles and unlike Pyrrhus, understands love.