Review: Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Here’s your spoiler alert: I’m going to give high marks to this work. While the goal of all reviews is to be as objective as possible, you can’t help adding your subjective opinions to reviews (which is one reason a review can also be called a POV, or “point of view”). I absolutely love ancient Greek myths and legends, and the Iliad is my favorite story of all time, so any story that brings its characters to life in a relatable way is automatically going to earn my highest praise (put another way, OBJECTIVELY, I don’t understand why the rest of yous don’t love ancient Greek myths).

Even with that higher floor for this book, I have to add even more weight to it for highlighting something that had been brushed over in the past – that the story of the Iliad was in fact a love story. Not the Menelaus/Paris/Helen love triangle (which drove the entire war, not just the period the Iliad covers) and not the Hector/Andromache love story (which was more of a poignant moment in the story), but the underlying relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. This love story was never apparent in the Iliad – as is pointed out several times in this book, gay relationships between full-grown men in good standing were frowned upon even then – to say nothing of how many times the story of the Iliad had been re-translated and re-written by Christian scholars. But when you think about the key events of the story it’s apparent the relationship was more than friendship – Patroclus is killed by Hector, which causes Achilles to break his vow to stop helping the Greeks so he can take revenge on Hector, which causes Achilles to spend some time parading Hector’s dead body in front of Troy, which causes Achilles to call a halt to the fighting for several days of funeral games. These are not the actions of a friend – these are the actions of a lover.

This book starts with the gripping and heartbreaking story of Patroclus’s birth, childhood, and eventual exile. The most outstanding chapter in the early going describes the meeting of Helen’s suitors (including nine year old Patroclus), all of whom will meet up again later in the Trojan war, and all of whom make a significant bond (more later).

From there, the book progresses to be the story of Patroclus and Achilles as a couple, first as childhood friends, then transforming to lovers. As mentioned above, the loving relationship between the two is papered over enough in the source material that when reading the book it is quite a shock – but, again, with further thought, it makes all the sense in the world.

When writing about the Greek myths, you can either excise the supernatural elements or lean into them. The author chooses the latter path, with starring roles for Thetis (Achilles’ sea-nymph mother) and Chiron (the centaur instructor of teenage Achilles and Patroclus), and cameos from other figures. This could cause confusion in weaker hands – how to make the humanity of the story break out in a world where literally anything can happen – but it is very successfully done here. Both Thetis and Chiron are fully fleshed out (Thetis especially), and enhance the story of the human figures.

There are a few problems with the story, one major and two more minor. The major problem is the arc of Achilles as a warrior. Up through his and Patroclus’ training with Chiron, the story was very insular – nobody was ever allowed to see Achilles fight except Patroclus, and Achilles had no reason to demonstrate his fighting technique to anybody – the only reason he was called the “Greatest of the Greeks” prior to the Trojan war was divinity (which was not unique once we get to Troy) and prophecy. And yet, the Myrmidons as well as the assembled Greek army are only too eager to accept him as the greatest warrior. It feels like there is a chapter missing, where Pythia has to battle a neighboring kingdom, and Achilles distinguishes himself in battle. While it’s true that all we know of Achilles from myths comes from the Trojan war, that doesn’t mean he didn’t join any battles prior to it. In fact, it enhances the concept of the Trojan war being the All-Star Game of fighting if each of the major combatants already have a history. Just because it isn’t mentioned in myths doesn’t mean it didn’t happen!

Regarding the minor issues, the first one is the vow that Helen’s suitors made to defend her honor, which naturally comes up in the Trojan war. Patroclus, being present, was bonded by this vow, but as a slave when the war begins he thinks he can hide from the promise. He is eventually found out…and then the vow never comes up again. Since this is the story of Patroclus, why bring it up in the first place?

The second minor issue is my favorite – I get to pick apart the story from the canon! To be clear, this is canon as I understand it – I reserve the right to be wrong – but I’ll proceed. First, one change that DIDN’T bother me – Thetis never dips Achilles in fire/Styx, so he is not invulnerable, and is not shot by Paris in the heel. I was totally fine with this change, as it makes Achilles more human (and I mean really, who dies from a heel?!?!). But the first thing that bothered me was the brief portrayal of Philoctetes – he is introduced in the early suitor meeting as an old man, and is never heard from again. While it’s true that Philoctetes rolled with Heracles, he couldn’t have been that much older than the other suitors, because he fought at Troy as well – not only is there a play about it, but one of the prophecies (which goes unmentioned in the book) is that Troy will not fall until Philoctetes’ bow arrives.

Speaking of prophecies, the author had Achilles draw the first blood of the war by spearing a Trojan while arriving on boat. In fact (or what have you), this was another major prophecy – that the first army to lose a life would be the victor – which produced an almost comical scene of Greeks and Trojans trying to step in the way of incoming spears and arrows to guarantee victory for their army. While this might be too ridiculous for the story, if the Greeks would accept Achilles as the greatest on prophecy alone, it doesn’t seem far-fetched for this universe.

Anyway, the above are there, but are mostly quibbles in an overall captivating and imaginative retelling of a classic story.

Recommended: Eight out of ten hot dogs