The Song of Achilles is Madeline Miller’s beautifully written retelling of the story of the Trojan War from the point of view of Achilles’ companion and, in Miller’s version, lover, Patroclus. Unlike other retellings of the story, including the 2004 film Troy with Brad Pitt as Achilles, Miller does not shy away from the sexual nature of Achilles’ and Patroclus’ relationship. It certainly is strongly suggested, if not explicitly stated, in The Iliad. I have always believed Achilles was attracted to both men and women. In Miller’s version, Patroclus is the great love of his life, but he has a son by Princess Deiadameia of Scyros (more on that later).
Patroclus is born a prince, but his father is ashamed of him because he’s shy, awkward, small for his age, and not athletic. When he is ten years old, he accidentally kills another boy who was making fun of him, and his father exiles him to the kingdom of Phthia, which is ruled by Achilles’ father, King Peleus. There he is fostered along with other boys who Peleus wants to be trained in a private army, and there he meets Achilles. Achilles is everything Patroclus is not: handsome, golden-haired, tall, athletic, swift-footed, a great fighter, and a gifted musician. He plays the lyre that once belonged to Patroclus’ mother. Achilles notices Patroclus right away, because he is so different from the other boys, and a strong friendship develops between them, which becomes a sexual attraction as the boys grow older.
Achilles’ mother, the sea nymph Thetis, is one of the chief antagonists of the novel. At one time, Zeus had his eye on Thetis, but there was a prophecy that Thetis would have a son who was greater than his father. There had been a similar prophecy about Zeus himself, and Zeus is always afraid of prophecies like that, so he decides to marry Thetis off to a mortal, Peleus. Achilles is raised by his father, but his mother often comes to visit him and give him advice. Thetis hates Patroclus from the very beginning, and we are never exactly sure why. She thinks Patroclus is not worthy of her son, but I wondered if she disapproved of the nature of their relationship. Not to give away a spoiler, but she does relent—in a way—at the end, but by then so much damage has been done that you cannot really forgive her. She is a frightening presence, rising from the sea and making the air around her turn cold whenever she appears.
The two boys are brought up by the centaur Chiron, who is one of the most delightful characters in the book. He teaches them the arts of war, recognizing Achilles as the greatest warrior of his time, while telling Patroclus that he would be a competent soldier if he chose to fight. But Patroclus is so traumatized by the incident in his childhood where he accidentally killed another boy that he decides he never wants to fight. When he realizes Patroclus will never be a fighter, Chiron teaches him, instead, the art of herbal medicine, and Patroclus becomes a skilled healer.
Achilles’ and Patroclus’ happiness with Chiron ends abruptly, though, when war with Troy breaks out. As a child, before his father disowned him, Patroclus was forced to become a suitor to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, along with every other unmarried king or prince of Greece, except, interestingly, Achilles. Helen chooses Menelaus, king of Sparta and brother to Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, who was the most powerful king in Greece at the time, and the crafty Odysseus, Prince of Ithaca, makes all the other suitors swear an oath that they will come to Menelaus’ defense if needed. When Helen leaves her husband and runs off with the Trojan prince Paris, the other suitors are bound to go to Troy and fight for her return. Whether Helen goes willingly or not is a question Miller never answers, but since the focus is on Achilles and Patroclus, not on Helen, she doesn’t have to. It remains one of the great unanswered questions of Greek mythology.
Thetis does not want her son to go to Troy, because there is a prophecy that he will die there. So, she disguises him as a girl and sends him to the court of King Lycomedes of Scyros. There, he reluctantly begins a relationship with the king’s daughter Deiadameia, who is one of the few who recognize him as a young man. They marry in secret, and eventually Deiadameia bears him a son, Neoptolemus, better known as Pyrrhus. Achilles never knows his son, who is raised by Thetis in her land of the sea. Patroclus arrives in Scyros and is very upset about Achilles’ relationship with Deiadameia, but he calms down once Achilles assures him that he is the love of his life. Deiademeia seduces Patroclus as well, but it is not certain if Achilles ever finds out.
Odysseus comes to Scyros and, by a trick of his, unmasks Achilles as a young man. Achilles is faced with a terrible choice, as his mother’s prophecy reveals: if he doesn’t go to Troy, he will grow old but die in obscurity, and if he goes to Troy, he will be famous, but he will die there. Achilles chooses fame, even if it comes with a short life. Odysseus also reminds Patroclus that he is bound by the oath he swore as a suitor of Helen. Patroclus had hoped he was no longer bound by it, because he was still a child at the time, and because his father had disinherited him, but Odysseus insists the oath is still good. Patroclus goes to Troy, not only because of the oath, but because he wants to stay with Achilles. He also learns of another prophecy, that Hector, the prince of Troy and the greatest warrior among the Trojans, will die before Achilles. So, Patroclus tells Achilles not to kill Hector. Achilles replies that he won’t, that Hector hasn’t done anything to him.
Before sailing to Troy, the Greek fleet is held up at Aulis because there is no wind to carry the ships to Troy. Agamemnon finds out that this is the goddess Artemis’ doing. She is the protector of Troy and wants to keep the Greek ships from arriving there. To break the spell, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess, and the sacrifice brings a favorable wind to send the fleet to Troy. Achilles is horrified by the sacrifice, and the role he reluctantly played in it. The pretext for bringing Iphigenia to Aulis was to marry her to Achilles. Odysseus knows Achilles is already married but indicates that he should stay silent. In some versions of the story, Artemis rescues Iphigenia at the last minute and substitutes a deer, but not in Miller’s version. The sacrifice of Iphigenia is the beginning of the hatred between Achilles and Agamemnon.
At the beginning of the war, the Greeks raid the villages and countryside around Troy, and they take many women captive. The first of them is Briseis, who Achilles requests to be given to him. Briseis joins Achilles and Patroclus in their camp, and Achilles treats her well, not using her for sex, as Agamemnon or one of the other Greek leaders would have. Other versions of the story have Achilles and Briseis fall in love, but not Miller’s version. Instead, Briseis and Patroclus share a very close friendship. Briseis loves Patroclus, even though she knows he really loves Achilles, and he admits that, if could ever marry a woman, it would be her. Achilles also rescues as many of the captive women as he can, and he gets the reputation of having a large sexual appetite for women, even though, of course, this is far from true.
Achilles becomes the Greeks’ greatest fighter, but war changes him, forcing him into acts of cruelty that horrify Patroclus, but Patroclus still loves him and remains loyal to him. Patroclus does not fight, but he uses his skills as a healer and becomes a surgeon to the Greek army. Ten years into the war, the daughter of a priest of Apollo is captured, and Agamemnon claims her as his prize. The girl’s father insists that he give her back and comes with large chests of gold to ransom her, but Agamemnon refuses. Apollo sends a plague to the Greek army. Patroclus, the healer, realizes the plague is not natural. Thetis, at a rare time when they’re not at odds, confirms what he thought. Agamemnon must return the girl to her father to appease Apollo, but he insists on taking Briseis away from Achilles to compensate for his loss. This leads to the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon which incites the events of The Iliad, even though, in Miller’s version, their enmity existed from the beginning of the war. An interesting question is, why does Achilles let Briseis go to Agamemnon, instead of fighting for her? Patroclus is very upset that he doesn’t, and we never really learn the answer. It is left up to the reader to decide.
Achilles’ anger with Agamemnon leads to his refusal to fight, and the Greek army suffers many losses, without their greatest warrior. Many times, Agamemnon begs him to come back, even though he won’t return Briseis to him, so Achilles refuses. Eventually the Trojans come close to the Greek camp and burn some of the ships, which would be disastrous for the Greek army, because they have no way of getting home without the ships. Patroclus tells Achilles he must fight, that the Greeks have no hope without him, and Achilles still refuses. Then he reluctantly accepts Patroclus’ request to wear Achilles’ armor. The Trojans will think Achilles is back and be frightened. Patroclus thinks he won’t even have to fight, which is how he convinces Achilles to let him do it. But Patroclus does end up fighting. Not to give away the details of the ending (even though it will be familiar to readers of The Iliad), but tragedy ensues. I knew the ending would be coming, but Miller writes it so well that it is heartbreaking.
There is a scene at the end where Achilles’ son Pyrrhus comes to Troy, because of a prophecy that Troy will not fall without him, and we see his cruelty as he murders the last surviving members of the Trojan royal family. Miller draws an interesting contrast between Achilles’ cruelty and his son’s. Achilles is cruel because of the circumstances he’s in, with a ten-year war, but he always has a kinder side to him, which is what Patroclus loves. Pyrrhus, who grew up in Thetis’ realm and never knew his father, is naturally cruel, with no mitigating circumstances.
This is a beautiful novel, and I love the way Miller writes about Achilles and Patroclus and their relationship. We see the horrors of war, and how it changes people for the worse. Miller is a Classics teacher, and, like myself, a longtime lover of The Iliad. (Yes, for some strange reason, I even enjoy the catalog of ships. I have no idea why.) Interestingly, she does not include the most famous part of Achilles’ legend, his vulnerable heel. As she explains in her author’s note, The Iliad never mentions Achilles’ heel. It was added to the legend much later. Miller stays faithful to the events of The Iliad, while adding her own interpretation. The result is an excellent novel, which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys Greek mythology or historical fiction set in the ancient world.
The Song of Achilles is available from the Hatcher Graduate Library and the Frances Willson Thompson Library on the Flint campus. It is also available online through OverDrive.