Laura: Sophia, if you had to describe the Achilles from the original myths in three words, what would they be? Sophia: Oh, easy. Angry, sulky, and... needs a Snickers. Just perpetually hangry. Laura: Exactly! He's the original drama king, sitting in his tent, refusing to fight because someone took his stuff. Which is what makes the book we're talking about today so brilliant. It takes that guy and asks... what if he was just a boy in love? Sophia: And that book is the one that has been absolutely everywhere, The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It feels like it had this huge second life on social media, but it also won the prestigious Orange Prize for Fiction way back when it was first released. Laura: It did, and Miller was the perfect person to write it. She has a Master's in Latin and Ancient Greek and apparently spent ten years working on this, her debut novel. She wanted to get inside the myth, to find the emotional truth that the original epic poems only hint at. Sophia: A decade of work. Wow. And she does it by flipping the camera around. Instead of focusing on the great warrior, she tells the story through the eyes of his companion, Patroclus. Laura: Precisely. And that shift in perspective changes everything. It transforms an epic of war into one of the most profound and devastating love stories in modern literature.

Sophia: Right, so let's start there. Why Patroclus? Why tell the story of the greatest warrior who ever lived through the eyes of someone who, at least at the beginning, feels completely… ordinary? Even a bit of a failure. Laura: Because that's the genius of it. We first meet Patroclus as a young, awkward prince. He's a disappointment to his father, King Menoitius. He’s small, he’s not particularly skilled. There’s this heartbreaking scene in the first chapter where his father is hosting games, and Patroclus sees this other boy—golden-haired, swift, perfect—win a race. That boy is, of course, Achilles. Sophia: And his father basically points to Achilles and says "That's what a real son looks like." Laura: Exactly. His father says, "That is what a son should be." So Patroclus is immediately defined by what he is not. He's inadequate. And then, through a tragic accident, he accidentally kills another boy and is exiled. He's stripped of his name, his title, and sent to the kingdom of Phthia to be fostered by King Peleus, Achilles's father. Sophia: So he arrives as a nobody. A disgraced, nameless boy. What happens when he meets the golden prince Achilles again? Laura: It’s not what you’d expect. He’s brought before Achilles, who is just casually playing his lyre, seemingly indifferent. Patroclus feels completely negligible. But later, Achilles seeks him out. He could have chosen any of the other foster boys as his companion, his therapon—boys who were stronger, more politically connected. But he goes to his father and asks for Patroclus. Sophia: Why? What reason does he give? Laura: That's the most beautiful part. King Peleus asks him, "Why this boy? He will add no luster to your reputation." And Achilles, with total honesty, just says, "I do not need him to." When Peleus presses him for a reason, Achilles simply says, "He is surprising." Sophia: Wow. In a world that's all about honor, reputation, and strategic alliances, he just picks the quiet, exiled kid because he finds him interesting. That's the first real crack in the myth of the unfeeling warrior right there. Laura: It is. It’s the moment the human story begins. And it’s a choice that immediately puts him in conflict with his mother, the sea-nymph Thetis. She sees Patroclus as a mortal stain, a distraction from the divine, glorious destiny she has planned for her son. Sophia: Ah, Thetis. The ultimate overbearing, disapproving mother-in-law from hell, but with god-like powers. She sees Patroclus not as a companion, but as an obstacle. Laura: A mortal anchor weighing down her divine son. And that tension, between Achilles's destiny and his humanity as embodied by Patroclus, becomes the engine of the entire story.

Sophia: That choice—picking the 'surprising' boy over a strategic ally—really does set up the central conflict of the entire novel, doesn't it? It's this constant battle between the public world of glory and the private world of their love. Laura: Absolutely. And to understand that, you have to understand the Greek concept of kleos. It means glory, or renown, but it’s more than that. It’s about achieving a fame so great that your name echoes through eternity. It's a form of immortality. For a hero like Achilles, kleos is the ultimate prize. Sophia: And the Trojan War is the biggest stage imaginable to win it. Laura: The biggest. Years later, when Odysseus comes to recruit a hidden Achilles for the war, he sells it to him on those exact terms. He says, "If you go to Troy, your fame will be so great that a man will be written into eternal legend just for having passed a cup to you." Sophia: That's a heck of a sales pitch. How can you say no to that? Laura: Well, that's the core of the novel's reinterpretation of heroism. Because Achilles has something else. He has Patroclus. And the book presents him with a prophecy, a clear choice. His mother Thetis tells him: he can either go to Troy, where he will win eternal glory but die young, or he can refuse the call, live a long, happy, and anonymous life, and be forgotten by history. Sophia: A short, glorious life, or a long, forgotten one with the person he loves. That's brutal. Laura: It is. And it leads to one of the most poignant moments in the book. Achilles, grappling with this, turns to Patroclus and asks, "Name one hero who was happy." Sophia: And of course, you can't. The stories are all tragedies. Heracles, Theseus, all of them. It’s as if glory and happiness are mutually exclusive. Laura: Miller really develops this idea during their time training with the centaur Chiron on Mount Pelion. That period is their Eden. It's a life away from the pressures of kings and prophecies. They learn medicine, music, and how to live simply. It’s the physical manifestation of that other choice—the long, happy, forgotten life. It's the life they could have had. Sophia: But is it ever a real choice for him? I mean, his mother is a goddess, he's been told he's the 'best of the Greeks' his whole life. The weight of that destiny must be immense. Is the desire for a quiet life ever a real possibility? Laura: The book suggests it's the only thing that makes him hesitate. Patroclus is the only reason it's a choice at all. Without him, Achilles would just be the angry, sulky warrior from the myths. With Patroclus, he's a man who has something to lose. And that, the book argues, is a different kind of heroism altogether.

Sophia: So he makes the choice for glory. He goes to Troy. But they have this plan, right? This heartbreaking, naive plan to cheat fate. Laura: They do. It’s so simple, it's almost childish. Thetis, in a rare moment of reluctant help, tells them another piece of the prophecy: Achilles will die soon after he kills Hector, the great prince of Troy. Sophia: Okay, so the solution seems obvious. Laura: Exactly. Achilles says, "Well, why should I kill him? He's done nothing to me." Their plan is just that: Achilles will fight, he will win glory, but he will simply avoid Hector. If Hector lives, Achilles lives. They think they've found a loophole in destiny. Sophia: Oh, that's just gut-wrenching. Because as a reader, you know that's not how Greek tragedies work. The harder you try to run from fate, the faster you run right into its arms. Laura: And that is precisely what happens. The war drags on for nine years. Achilles withdraws from the fighting after a massive falling out with Agamemnon over a war prize, the girl Briseis. His pride is wounded, and he refuses to fight. Sophia: The classic sulking in the tent. Laura: The classic sulking. But this time, the consequences are catastrophic. Without their champion, the Greeks are slaughtered. The Trojans, led by Hector, breach the Greek defenses and are about to burn their ships, their only way home. The situation is desperate. Sophia: And Patroclus can't stand to watch it happen. Laura: He can't. He begs Achilles to fight, but Achilles's pride won't let him. So Patroclus, in a moment of desperate love and compassion, makes a fateful proposal: "Let me wear your armor. Let me lead your men. The Trojans will see the armor and think you have returned. They will be afraid, and it will give the Greeks time to recover." Sophia: And Achilles agrees, but with a strict warning. Laura: A fatal warning. He tells him: "Drive them from the ships, but then you must come back. Do not go to the walls of Troy. Swear it to me." Patroclus swears, but in the heat of battle, filled with a warrior's divine fury—what the Greeks called aristeia—he forgets his promise. He is too successful. He drives the Trojans all the way back to the city walls. Sophia: And there he meets Hector. Laura: There he meets Hector. And he is killed. And in that moment, the plan to save Achilles's life becomes the very instrument of his doom. Sophia: Because now Achilles has a reason to kill Hector. The only reason that could ever matter more to him than his own life. Revenge for Patroclus. Laura: The perfect, horrible, inevitable tragedy. His love for Patroclus, the very thing he was trying to protect by avoiding his fate, is what ultimately seals it.

Sophia: It’s just devastating. The book takes this epic, sprawling myth about war and honor and boils it down to this intensely personal, human-scale tragedy. Laura: It really does. Ultimately, Miller uses this ancient framework to tell a very modern story. Homer's Iliad famously begins with the line, "Sing, Goddess, of the rage of Achilles." It’s a story about pride and anger. But The Song of Achilles is about the love of Achilles. It suggests that what makes a life meaningful isn't the glory you achieve in the eyes of the world, but the connections you forge and the person you become in the quiet moments. Sophia: And it leaves you with that question Achilles himself asked: "Name one hero who was happy." The book seems to argue that maybe the only shot he had at happiness was the one he had to give up for glory. It redefines what a heroic life could even mean. Laura: It’s a story that has resonated so deeply with so many readers, especially queer readers who have rarely seen their love stories centered in such an epic, heroic context. It’s a powerful, beautiful, and utterly heartbreaking book. Sophia: It really is. And it definitely makes you think about the choices we all face between what the world expects of us and what our hearts truly want. Laura: A timeless question. We'd love to hear how this book impacted you. Did Achilles make the right choice? Find us on our socials and let us know your thoughts. Sophia: This is Aibrary, signing off.