The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller tells the story of Achilles and his path to fame in Greek history, but his story would be incomplete without Patroclus. When Patroclus is exiled from his homeland, he meets Achilles, prince of Phthia, Aristos Achaion, "the best of the Greeks," and the two forge an unbreakable bond. Trained by Chiron in medicine and war, they join the heroes of Greece to recover Helen of Sparta and lay siege to the mighty city of Troy. Achilles has been promised a glorious destiny during this war, but neither he nor Patroclus truly knows what the Fates have in store.
As a huge fan of Greek mythology, I've meant to read this book for a long time. Everything I'd heard told me it was a beautiful book, heart-wrenching and captivating. I didn't think it would hit so hard since I already knew the story of Achilles and Patroclus, but it did. That's what I love about fiction—it can take characters you may already know and cast them in a new light. I'd always heard about Achilles and Patroclus and the Trojan War as distant historical figures, but with this book, they felt real.
Achilles and Patroclus's relationship is depicted so seamlessly, so beautifully. Their loyalty to each other is so admirable and makes you wish you had the same. Seeing how the war changed them and widened the cracks between them broke my heart. Achilles has always been known as a great hero, but his pride and grief influenced his decisions, showing how much more to him there was—the good and the bad. A lot of this comes from the ugly realities of life and behavior in Ancient Greece, but since it's a fictionalized retelling, I was willing to let most of it slide.
I really liked how this book depicted Patroclus's agency and true role in Achilles's life. History classes barely mention him, calling him Achilles's companion and speculating on the true nature of his relationship, giving him as the reason for Achilles's bloodthirsty wrath in The Illiad. But this book paints him as more than a plot device. He was a man with his own desires and did perhaps as much as Achilles for the Greeks during the Trojan War. He loved Achilles more than anything, even when his decisions threatened to tear them apart. Reading this book never felt like a Sherlock Holmes situation—where the narrator, Watson, isn't the main character, Holmes. The Song of Achilles is Patroclus's story as much as it is Achilles's.
I rate The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 5/5 stars. Fans of Greek history and mythology will enjoy this book. I'm looking forward to reading Madeline Miller's other retelling, Circe.
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