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The Song Of Achilles - A Review

The Song Of Achilles: Greek mythology, lover’s tragedy, and incredibly gay. The classical classic, if you will. The 2011 novel by Madeline Miller follows Patroclus through his neglected childhood to his friendship (and more…) with famed hero Achilles. We all know (if you don’t, where have you been for the past thirteen-hundred years?) the story of the Iliad. However, its retelling through Patroclus’ point of view within the novella gives a new interpretation that many casual enjoyers of mythology may not have understood or considered before. And let’s face it, I highly doubt that you’re a classics student and are professionally trained in the art of all things ancient.

The novel starts at a drawling pace that may discourage many readers before the deep emotional journey begins. The flavourless description will definitely deter some action-heavy readers who have no concept of the passion within the pages that lie just beyond the meeting of Achilles and Patroclus. Good riddance, I say to them! The emotion trapped within the pages, waiting to be freed by a curious reader perfectly contrasts the monochromatic feel at the start, the joyless situation in which Patroclus had found himself in quickly turned into a radically joyful experience with Achilles, best of the Greeks.

And let’s discuss Achilles. True to Greek mythology, Achilles is not a paragon. He has major flaws that Miller plainly highlights in several scenes with Briseis in terms of pride, refusing to fight when Agamemnon steals Achilles’ ‘lover’ - this is the main plot of the Iliad and Miller adapts the story but that’s a whole other subplot so just trust me on this - and Achilles goes on strike, causing major casualties on the Greek side of the war. What I mean by this, though, is that Achilles is not presented as a moral authority: much like the Greek gods and much of Greek mythology, the flaws of the character exist because characters are not good or bad, but true. Achilles’ flaws showcase how the prodigy is imperfect, and our protagonist does have to grapple with his lover’s flaws and ends up dying because of them. The novel is by no means perfect: whilst I understand the idea of the contrasting pace I do think Miller got too zealous with the angsty sauce. However, as her debut novel I am most definitely willing to overlook this aspect. You may think that a 17-year old student is in no place to critique this book, and that is a very good point. So sod off if you make it, I’m in charge here: democracy is dead and I killed it!

#classics #homer #song of achilles #book review