the song of achilles: a modern day epic
- paigenherbooks
- Apr 3, 2022
- 4 min read
5/5
also: Achilles, Come Down by Gang of Youth's is the perfect song for this story.
A five out of five star rating doesn’t even come close with how beautiful, tragic, and heart warming while instantaneously ripping your heart out, this book is. The Song of Achilles is one of my all time favorite books, up there with The Phantom Toll Booth and Twilight. This is my second time diving into Madeline Miller’s novel and it did not disappoint. This book also has some of the most beautiful quotes ever!
So, please sit down and grab something to drink because I am about to dump every thought and feeling I have during this literal perfect novel.
Synopis:Synopsis: The Song of Achilles is a 2011 novel by American writer Madeline Miller. Set during the Greek Heroic Age, it is an adaptation of Homer's Iliad as told from the perspective of Patroclus.
As I said this is my second time reading it and I loved it just as much as the first time. But I will say re-reading the novel, knowing what was coming, you can see and hear the deep sorrow that covers every word that Patroclus, our narrator speaks about. This book is heavy, heavy in a way that I hadn’t realized my first time reading. It hurts while reading this but in the best way.
Patroclus.
I love him.
I have always loved him, even when I was reading the Iliad, he has always been one of my favorites. He is kind and quiet someone who sits in the background and is content to do so. So when I realized The Song of Achilles would be told from his point of view I was so excited. Coming back to it again, I loved it even more. Patroclus loves Achilles with everything in him, in a way that is so pure and heartwarming. It makes me smile so hard and weep when I think about it. Patroclus also has a way in the way he speaks. It is poetic. It is modern day Homer, you can sing song his memories and the way he speaks. It’s beautiful.
I also of course love Achilles.
Who doesn’t though?
The way that Madeline Miller describes this child turned boy turned famous Greek hero is breathtaking. He isn’t just the stone cold hero we know, but he was once a child, a child who didn't want to fight or even kill. A child that wanted to spend his day running and swimming on the beach, eating figs. The way the story crafts these two characters in a way that you genuinely love and care for each is impressive. I have never felt so much love and adoration for two people before.
The story itself is also of course beautiful. The Trojan War is one of my favorite stories and I can say as a huge Greek history nerd, Miller did a fantastic job of recreating this story perfectly. All of our side characters, Odysseus, Ajax, Agamemnon, where done so so well. They were the perfect culmination of gruff but still obsessed with honor in a way that I understood. The story is just simply perfect. I know you are tired of me saying that by now but I mean it.
This book is perfection.
Now, I am going to get into the real reason I love this book. If you have not read, I beg you to go no further. You might know the story of Achilles but I promise you, you won’t want to spoil what Miller has in store for you as the reader.
The moment Achilles refuses to die to his pride, he loses everything. Everyone knows that Patroclus dresses up as Achilles to insight fear and to rally the men of Greece to fight, everyone know how he falls in the battlefield and how Achilles takes his revenge. But I almost don’t even have words to describe the pain and agony I feel when I read those pages. Patroclus goes to yes, rally the Greeks, but to save Achilles from being hated. He goes as to see that no more of his brethren be slaughtered by the Trojans. He goes for Achilles. When Apollo starts to interfere I started to tear up, but the moment Patroclus’ last thought is “Achilles”.
I lost it.
I started sobbing and it only gets worse. Achilles see’s him and is in a rage. He is heartbroken, angry, and is quite frankly in denial. He sleeps with his body and won’t let anyone go near him. Then he gets his revenge on Hector. When he eventually returns the body of Hector you can just tell he is tired. The pain that you feel while reading this is unspeakable. It’s an hole in your heart as you watch the events unfold. As you watch as Paris gets help from the gods again and strikes Achilles, how he dies with a smile on his face, knowing he will see Patroclus again.
But the story doesn’t stop there, which I was surprised my first time reading it.
You watch as Patroclus isn’t laid to rest all because of Achilles asshole son. Sorry not sorry I don’t like Pyrrhus and Im happy when he dies. We get to see the aftermath of Achilles death and how things slowly pan out. Another heart warming as well as wrenching moment is when Thetis, Achilles mother, who has always detested Patroclus comes to sit at her sons’ grave. Where they have left out Patroclus’s name, all due again to his brat kid. Achilles wish for his and Patroclus’s ashes to be mixed and for them to be buried together. Since they did not listen, our narrator is left wasting away as he wanders. The moment that Thetis and Patroclus share their memories is so beautiful. For once they both can see the boy that they adored and loved. Due to this Thetis in her only positive act towards Patroclus, writes his name next to A C H I L L E S...and he is laid to rest. Our story ends so beautifully that of course I was still crying.
For me this book is one that depicts what true love is. Sacrifice, compromise, and just selflessness. This book is so whole and poetic. It's one of my all time favorites and I will be returning to it again and again.
Farewell and read on readers,
xoxo,
paige :)
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