The Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles, author Madeline Miller’s bestselling novel, retells the events of Homer’s Iliad. Published in 2012, the book reimagines the relationship between ancient Greek Trojan war heroes Achilles and Patroclus. Narrated in the first person by Patroclus, the narrative explores themes central to ancient Greek mythology, notably the immutability of fate and the pursuit of glory.

The novel begins with Patroclus narrating his birth and early childhood. Son of King Menoitius, the undersized and bullied Patroclus is a disappointment to his father. Menoitius brings 9-year-old Patroclus to the court of Tyndareus as a suitor for his daughter Helen’s hand in marriage. While Patroclus’s suit is inevitably rejected, he is obliged to take a blood oath pledging to protect Helen’s marriage.

At the age of 10, Patroclus is exiled for accidentally killing a nobleman’s son. His exile brings him to Phthia, where he meets Achilles, son of King Peleus and Thetis, a nymph. Achilles is drawn to Patroclus and requests him for a companion. The two become inseparable, and their friendship turns to romance as they grow into adolescence. However, Thetis does not approve of their relationship. She believes that a mortal of such little renown is not a suitable companion for her son, who is fated for glory. She whisks Achilles away to train with the centaur Chiron, famed for having trained Heracles and other Greek heroes. Patroclus follows Achilles, and the boys spend two happy years together studying with Chiron.

When Achilles is 16, Peleus sends for him and reveals that Mycenaean king Agamemnon has asked for military support from the disparate kingdoms of the Greek-speaking world. His brother Menelaus’s wife Helen has been abducted by Trojan prince Paris, and Agamemnon plans to lead an expedition to Troy to recover her. Peleus hopes that Achilles will lead the Phthian delegation. However, Thetis is aware of a prophecy that states Achilles will die if he goes to Troy. She spirits him away to the kingdom of Lycomedes on the island of Scyros. There, Achilles hides, disguised as a woman. Still determined to end her son’s association with Patroclus, Thetis weds Achilles to Lycomedes’s daughter Deidameia, and she becomes pregnant.

Grief-stricken to find his lover gone, Patroclus extracts Achilles’s location from Peleus and travels to Scyros. The couple remains in hiding until Greek leaders Odysseus and Diomedes arrive and expose them. Unlike Patroclus, Achilles did not take the oath to protect Helen, but he cannot resist the lure of immortal glory through military exploits. In knowing the prophecy, which stipulates that Achilles’s death will follow the Trojan prince Hector’s death, Achilles resolves not to fight him.

Upon arriving at Aulis, the Greek forces’ meeting point, Achilles immediately clashes with Agamemnon. As the leader of the expedition, Agamemnon expects to be treated as first among the Greeks, but Achilles considers himself superior due to his military excellence. The Greek forces are stranded at Aulis due to insufficient wind for sailing. A priest reveals that the goddess Artemis demands a sacrifice, Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigenia. Agamemnon brings her to Aulis under the pretense that she will marry Achilles. Unaware that the marriage is a ruse, Achilles is horrified to see her throat slashed at the altar and believes that his honor has been defiled by his association with human sacrifice. Though the sacrifice achieves the desired effect by bringing the necessary winds for sailing to Troy, it escalates the tension between Agamemnon and Achilles.

The Greeks begin their siege of Troy, a city crafted by the god Apollo and protected by impenetrable walls. They conduct raids of local farming communities to choke off the city’s food supplies and flood it with refugees. In the process, the Greeks acquire local women as slaves. At Patroclus’s urging, Achilles claims a young woman called Briseis to save her from becoming another warrior’s bed-slave. Meanwhile, in the heat of battle, Achilles discovers his full potential as a warrior. While Achilles revels in his battle skill, Patroclus turns his attention to working in the infirmary. Though he is horrified by the implications of Achilles’s murderous art, Patroclus attempts to support him, knowing that it is Achilles’s chance for immortality.

Agamemnon claims Chryseis at a dispersal of captured women. She is the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. Chryses appeals to the Greeks for his daughter’s release and offers treasure, but Agamemnon humiliates him and sends him away. Chryses calls on Apollo, who sends a plague to devastate the Greeks. Achilles calls an assembly to demand that Agamemnon return Chryseis. In retaliation, Agamemnon confiscates Briseis. Furious at this perceived attack on his honor, Achilles withdraws himself and his forces. None of them will fight until Agamemnon apologizes and kneels before him. Thetis convinces Zeus to help the Trojans beat the Greeks so that they will further regret having allowed Agamemnon to disrespect Achilles.

The Greeks subsequently suffer devastating losses. The Trojans break the Greeks’ defending wall and begin to set fire to their ships, their only means of returning home. Patroclus, who has grown close to the men after tending to their physical injuries, becomes distraught. Unable to convince Achilles to return to battle, he contrives to impersonate him by wearing his armor. Achilles makes Patroclus promise to return once the Trojans are in retreat. Disguised in Achilles’s armor, Patroclus leads a charge that achieves the intended retreat. Inflamed with bloodlust in the heat of battle, Patroclus fails to turn back. He kills one of their best leaders, but then Hector kills him.

No longer interested in living, Achilles returns to battle and kills Hector. Shortly after, Paris kills Achilles. The Greeks build him a tomb but fail to include Patroclus’s name, at the urging of his son, who Thetis has brought to Troy to replace his father. Patroclus’s shade is left to roam the earth until Thetis relents and writes his name on the tomb, enabling the shades of Patroclus and Achilles to reunite joyfully in the afterlife.