Miller ramps up the dramatic irony inherent in their story. Achilles has long known that he must choose between a short, glorious life, and a long one lived in obscurity. The sense of impending tragedy is never far away from these lovers. And when Briseis, the concubine Agamemnon later steals from Achilles, gradually learns Greek from Patroclus, 'her words were like new leather, still stiff and precise, not yet run together with use'. Iphigenia, sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to appease the goddess Artemis, is described as having 'a tripping name, the sound of goat hooves on rock, quick, lively, lovely'. Miller's prose is more poetic than almost any translation of Homer. Achilles remains a godlike figure to Patroclus: 'Then I turned to look at him. The story is told from the perspective of Patroclus who, exiled by his father to live in the court of Peleus, soon falls in love with his host's son, the superhuman Achilles: from childhood, his demi-god status means he is swifter, more beautiful and more skilled than all his peers.Īstonishingly to Patroclus's eyes, Achilles returns his love, and the two boys grow into adulthood and a love affair.

Homer sets all this out in the opening line of The Iliad: 'Sing, muse, of the wrath of Achilles.' Even after death, his ghost still thirsts for blood, and Polyxena, a Trojan princess, has to be sacrificed at his tomb before the Greeks can sail home from Troy.īut in her novel, The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller has found the lover beneath the bloodshed and fury. Miller is by no means the first to suggest that the nature of the relationship between her narrator and Achilles was that of lovers, but it’s her willingness to chart a course that strays outside established myth that brings new life to these legendary heroes.His revenge on Hector was merciless: not only did he kill the bulwark of Troy, he dishonoured the corpse, dragging Hector's body around the city three times. In the tradition of renowned historical novelist Mary Renault, whose work centered on ancient Greece, Miller crafts a heartbreaking backstory for two of the most pivotal players in Homer’s Trojan War. With their fates already written-and inexorably entwined-the story follows exiled prince Patroclus and famed warrior Achilles, “best of all the Greeks,” from their childhood training with the centaur Chiron through their years laying siege to Troy as soldiers in Agamemnon’s army. To say that The Song of Achilles is simply a retelling of Homer’s Iliad from a different perspective would be to overlook the depth of emotion that Madeline Miller spent 10 years infusing into the tragic romance that drives her debut.

Achilles the song of achilles