Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

🐣🐣🐣🐣🐣

5/5 ducklings

tl:dr: I thought I knew how this 3000 year old story ended, and I did, and yet some how Madeline Miller surprised me and I may never recover.

I am not ok. I have been emotionally devastated, I am broken and I truly will never be the same. As dramatic as that sounds, it’s true, I finished this in my car while on my lunch break at work and had to go back to work and pretend I hadn’t just had my heart ripped out and trampled on by a literal goddess.

You all know this story already: Achilles and Patroclus fall in love, Achilles is destined to be the greatest warrior that ever lived, Hector kills Patroclus, Achilles kills Hector, Paris kills Achilles, the Trojans don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Boom. Done.

But here’s what I didn’t know: the horror Patroclus feels when he accidentally kills a boy, Achilles teaching Patroclus to juggle, how Patroclus ran after Achilles with no idea where he was going after Thetis sent him to train with Chiron, the blissful time they spent together on Skyros while Achilles pretended to be a woman, the look on Achilles' face when Iphigenia was murdered, the utter loneliness of a restless soul, how much I hate Odysseus.

Madeline Miller made this story more real, more human than any myth has the right to be. She makes Achilles and Agamemnon and Chiron and all the rest seem like real people whose stories actually happened. Her narration as Patroclus a masterclass in characterization and voice, every word is steeped in his thoughts and feelings and wants and fears. It’s clear she knows his character intimately.

I know everyone talks about the ending being the biggest emotional gut punch, and I don’t disagree, but there was another scene that stuck in my head as the first moment with real emotional stakes: the death of Iphigenia.

I was a Greek mythology girlie in school (shout out to Edith Hamilton), so Iphigenia’s was a story I knew, if not well: the princess sacrificed by her father to win a war. But Miller’s depiction is intimate, shocking, and heartbreaking. The Greek army has sailed to Aulis to prepare for war, however the winds have gone eerily calm, preventing their departure, leaving them stranded on the island.

Agamemnon approaches Achilles, offering his eldest daughter’s hand in marriage as a way to boost morale, since everyone loves a wedding. Achilles, unsure of the idea, tells Patroclus that if he doesn’t want Achilles to marry the girl, he would refuse. Patroclus agrees to let the marriage go ahead if Achilles wants it. Patroclus accompanies Achilles to the ceremony, both as moral support and, I think, because he feels a little responsible for the marriage.

Achilles is standing on a stage, flanked by Odysseus and Agamemnon, amidst the crowd of soldiers, feeling the weight of this responsibility. He is destined to be the best of the Greek soldiers, so he sees their morale as part of that destiny, if he can’t encourage them to fight, then who can? And so, he takes the responsibility of this marriage seriously, even if he isn’t personally interested in the woman who will be his wife.

Iphigenia is led to the stage by Diomedes, Agamemnon and Odysseus all converge around her, and Achilles and Iphigenia see each other for the first and only time, over Odysseus’ shoulder. That is when it all goes wrong.

Agamemnon pulls a knife, putting it to his daughter’s throat, and kills her. Achilles sees what’s about to happen the instant before it does, but can’t get to her in time. All Iphigenia can do is look on with terror.

The way Miller describes Achilles’ horror at the situation, the sacrifice of an innocent girl, Agamemnon’s own daughter, at his failure to save her, is gutting, it’s moment of painful emptiness that leaps off the page and punches you in the stomach. I legitimately had to put the book down after that.

But that wasn't the worst of it, the worst part was Odysseus telling Achilles he knew all along what would happen and deliberately stopped him from getting to Iphigenia. Odysseus is so casual about the entire affair, he just assumed he had the right to murder a girl and traumatize a young man, and if you didn't already think that man was an bag of poo, you should now. It was the first real betrayal of the book, or at least the first that felt like it had true consequence. I didn’t expect it to hit so hard, but it was the first time that Achilles’ destiny really impacted him negatively.

Even now, weeks after finishing the book (yes, I know I’m slow to post these reviews, don’t judge me), this is the scene i keep coming back it: the terror on Iphigenia’s face, Achilles’ disgust at being played so plainly, Odysseus’ casual arrogance about the entire situation. It’s sickening, infuriating, and sad all at the same time in a way I rarely find in a book.

I will admit, I put off reading Song of Achilles for so long because I didn’t think it would live up to the hype; working in a bookstore, I learned to be very skeptical of books that hyped, more often than not, they’re a let down, but this one exceeded my expectations on every front. It’s a paragon of literature, and it makes me so incredibly happy that one of the most highly praised books of the 21st century is all about two queer characters living their lives, more or less secure in their relationship, who do what they must in duty to their cause.

I think this is especially important, given the rhetoric surrounding Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. People were so upset about any hint of not-straight-ness, that I’d be lying if I told you if I didn’t take a little vicious glee in the current popular interpretation of the literally the Greatest Greek Warrior to Ever Live is as a gay dancer boy drag queen.

But at the end of the day, it’s just a really good book with remarkably human characters with deep, complicated relationships and I think you should read it. Just make sure you’re not on your lunch break and have to face your coworkers after you just balled your eyes out.

Originally published: September 3, 2011