The Song of Achilles, created and written by Madeline Miller, tells the story of Achilles from the perspective of his lover and best friend, Patroclus. This story is a spin off Homer’s Iliad, and depicts a beautiful relationship amidst Achilles’ growth, training, and participation in the Trojan War. Patroclus is banished from his home country as a child and is sent to live in Phthia with Achilles, who is a god-born prince destined to be an unrivaled soldier but die in the Trojan War. Amidst this fate, he trains constantly to maintain his powerful image and attempt to overcome this destiny. Throughout this journey, he and Patroclus begin a beautiful friendship where Patroclus sees through his external cold and rugged exterior and begins to understand him deeply. Achilles is touched by Patroclus’s kindness and the two form an inseparable loving relationship up until his untimely and imminent death at war.
An overarching theme in this story is Achilles’ external strength, yet internal soft and loving characteristics from his childhood. His destiny to kill is instilled in him from birth, yet he took some time to fully grow into this position expected by him. A god claimed that “men will hear of (his) skill, and they will wish for (him) to fight their wars” (Miller, 85). At the time, Achilles’ answer rendered him incredibly unsure of his gift and where he felt his place was in history. Achilles embodies this image and gift when he agreed to fight Troy in the Trojan War, and brings Patroclus along with him. War culture ultimately engulfs Achilles, and Patroclus uses his deep understanding of the warrior to communicate how much Achilles is changed by the thrill of killing. Ultimately, his relationship with Patroclus is described as the only thing that ties him to his human kindness and his own childhood identity. Though I had read this story prior to this course, the recent reflection reminded me of Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Both Achilles and Okonkwo were driven to uphold an external identity supported by violence and it ended up ostracising both individuals.
I think Miller’s incorporation of Patroclus and Achilles’ relationship challenged both societal norms of heterosexual relationships in popular pieces of work, and Achilles’s identity with his power. Most know of Achilles as this harsh, brutal warrior with little compassion for others, yet he allowed his immense love for Patroclus to always break him out of his warrior exterior.
Sources:
Miller, M. (2011). The Song of Achilles. Bloomsbury Publishing
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