The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller
This is a story about love.
But it's also a story about rage, and war, and the killing fields, and how any of those can stand in the way and kill the heart. It's a story about how the three together can destroy the soul.
It's a tale based on The Iliad by Homer, with a few twists. Achilles still is heroic, handsome, and courageous, the warrior who will save Helen from the Trojans and allow the Greeks to sack Troy. He is neither a king nor a god, but he remains the best the Greeks have to offer.
But Achilles' song is not the beautiful tunes he plays on the lyre, but is his anger and bloodlust. It torments not only him, but his friend and lover, Patroclus, during Achilles' early life and later through the long siege of Troy. Patroclus fears Achilles will be remembered only for the number of men he killed during battle.
"Perhaps such things pass for virtue among the gods," Patroclus says. "But how is there glory in taking a life? We die so easily."
It is up to Achilles to choose: A prophecy has given him the choice of being a hero who dies young, or an old man who lives out a long life in obscurity.
Miller is a Greek scholar who has written this gem of a book, which describes an alternative to The Iliad. It's wonderfully written -- poetic even -- and full of tightly written tales and varying perspectives that gives voice to the men who fought the wars and the women they held captive.
Through Patroclus -- her narrator and bard for Achilles, not just during their lives, but after they pass into death -- Miller explores Achilles's life and relationships, She explicitly portrays Achilles and Patroclus as lovers. That's a relationship that Homer may have hinted at, but never described. It's something that later writers have alluded to and tried to explain, often by putting it into the Greek context. Those descriptions show the two men may have had brief sexual encounters, and even loved one another, but they also had wives and children. Miller describes their relationship, except for a few incidents, as an exclusive, lifelong companionship.
She also delves into the relationship between Achilles and his mother, the sea-nymph goddess, Thetis, Narrator Patroclus also explores his own relationship (not good) with Thetis, as well as his relationship (good) with the war-prize slave Briseis, whom Patroclus saves from the hands of Agamemnon, who wanted her as his bride and slave.
Miller tutors us on the myths and legends of other Greek gods and warriors, including Odysseus, Hector, and Paris. In her notes, she tells us the legend of Achilles' heel is not something Homer wrote about, but that came along much later. In dismissing it, Miller gives it a single, oblique reference: A warrior, with the god Apollo by his side, attempts to kills Achilles.
"Where do I aim?" says the man. "I heard he was invulnerable. Except for ..."
"He is a man," Apollo replied. "Not a god. Shoot him and he will die."
But Achilles' song is not the beautiful tunes he plays on the lyre, but is his anger and bloodlust. It torments not only him, but his friend and lover, Patroclus, during Achilles' early life and later through the long siege of Troy. Patroclus fears Achilles will be remembered only for the number of men he killed during battle.
"Perhaps such things pass for virtue among the gods," Patroclus says. "But how is there glory in taking a life? We die so easily."
It is up to Achilles to choose: A prophecy has given him the choice of being a hero who dies young, or an old man who lives out a long life in obscurity.
Miller is a Greek scholar who has written this gem of a book, which describes an alternative to The Iliad. It's wonderfully written -- poetic even -- and full of tightly written tales and varying perspectives that gives voice to the men who fought the wars and the women they held captive.
Through Patroclus -- her narrator and bard for Achilles, not just during their lives, but after they pass into death -- Miller explores Achilles's life and relationships, She explicitly portrays Achilles and Patroclus as lovers. That's a relationship that Homer may have hinted at, but never described. It's something that later writers have alluded to and tried to explain, often by putting it into the Greek context. Those descriptions show the two men may have had brief sexual encounters, and even loved one another, but they also had wives and children. Miller describes their relationship, except for a few incidents, as an exclusive, lifelong companionship.
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| Miller, who also wrote Circe, from the back cover of The Song of Achilles |
She also delves into the relationship between Achilles and his mother, the sea-nymph goddess, Thetis, Narrator Patroclus also explores his own relationship (not good) with Thetis, as well as his relationship (good) with the war-prize slave Briseis, whom Patroclus saves from the hands of Agamemnon, who wanted her as his bride and slave.
Miller tutors us on the myths and legends of other Greek gods and warriors, including Odysseus, Hector, and Paris. In her notes, she tells us the legend of Achilles' heel is not something Homer wrote about, but that came along much later. In dismissing it, Miller gives it a single, oblique reference: A warrior, with the god Apollo by his side, attempts to kills Achilles.
"Where do I aim?" says the man. "I heard he was invulnerable. Except for ..."
"He is a man," Apollo replied. "Not a god. Shoot him and he will die."
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