My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Back in 2019, I read Madeline Miller’s amazing book Circe, a retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey, but from the point of view of the witch Circe, who famously had turned Odysseus’s men into pigs before becoming his lover for a time. It was one of my most memorable reads in recent years as it breathed new life into that classic tale. But this was not Ms. Miller’s first time retelling a classic Greek myth from an interesting point of view. Back in 2012, she debuted with this book, which is a retelling of Homer’s The Iliad, from the perspective of Patroclus, Achilles’s lover. Now that I have finally read this book, I am pleased to say that if you loved Circe, then you are also going to love The Song of Achilles too.
As said above, this book revolves around Patroclus, the companion and lover to the greatest of the Greek warriors during the Trojan War, Achilles, whose tragic death in battle at the hands of the great Trojan warrior Hector spurs Achilles into a vengeful rage on the battlefield until he has killed Hector himself. Patroclus is not at all like Achilles, who was descended from the king of Phithia and a sea-nymph. Instead, Patroclus has no godly blood and, though he descends from royalty, he finds himself exiled at a young age to Phithia. He has no special talents, except perhaps at healing, and he is certainly not a great warrior like Achilles. Yet Achilles takes a shine to Patroclus soon after his arrival and the two become unlikely friends and then lovers. But when the Trojan War calls Achilles to the battlefield and his destiny, Patroclus follows him and seals his own tragic fate.
Just like Circe, telling this story from the point of view of a minor character such as Patroclus, Ms. Miller gives a fresh perspective on a familiar story that is thousands of years old. Though Patroclus is no demigod nor a great warrior like Achilles, it is absolutely surprising how many great figures he stumbles across in his travels. Odysseus, Agammemnon, and Helen are just some of the famous characters Patroclus interacts with. Ms. Miller is even able to connect other minor characters in The Iliad to other famous Greek myths. For example, Ms. Miller points out that Nestor, who is just an old man and an advisor to Agammemnon in The Iliad, was actually one of the Argonauts who travelled alongside such mythological figures as Jason and Herakles (i.e. Hercules). This not only fleshes out a minor character in The Iliad, but shows just how interconnected Greek mythology was, sort of like how all of the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe are connected to each other today.
Another wonderful part about this book is how it relates stories that were not even in The Iliad. After all, the Trojan War lasted ten years, but The Iliad happens years after the start of the war. So events such as Helen’s choosing of Menelaus for her husband, the blood oath Helen’s suitors swore to protect her, and Agamemnon’s sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, which were not included in The Iliad, are all related in this book. Ms. Miller has synthesized most of these stories into one book, which gives readers a fuller picture of the Trojan War than The Iliad or any of the classical Greek plays do.
The only issue I had with this book was with the ending. As mentioned above, Patroclus tragically dies in The Iliad at the hands of Hector and that’s what happens here too. But while that would seem to be a natural ending point for this book, Ms. Miller finds a way extend the tale to keep Patroclus as the main POV character, but relate events that happened well after his death. I won’t spoil how she does that and it’s not an entirely unwelcome plot device, nor is this book concluded in an unsatisfactory manner because of it. But by using this plot device, I felt as though Ms. Miller extended the story just a bit too far beyond its natural end point. That said, this is a very minor gripe that I have with the book that does not diminish my overall enjoyment of it.
In short, The Song of Achilles is a fabulous book that, like Circe after it, retells a familiar Greek myth in a way that breaths new life into it. If you liked Circe or if you are just a fan of ancient mythologies and retellings, you should pick up and read this book right away.
No comments:
Post a Comment