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The Song of Achilles

460 statements
90 feature instances
14 referencing feature instances

The Song of Achilles	type	TVTItem
The Song of Achilles	label	The Song of Achilles
The Song of Achilles	page	TheSongOfAchilles
The Song of Achilles	comment	The Song of Achilles is a 2011 novel by Madeline Miller. It retells the events of, and leading up to, The Iliad from the point of view of Patroclus, the beloved companion of Achilles.Patroclus is a disappointment to his father, and is still young when he is exiled to the island of Phthia, to be an attendant on the half-divine Achilles. But Achilles takes a shine to Patroclus, and it's not long before they're best friends, and then lovers. They learn the art of heroism from the great teacher Chiron, and want to live happily ever after... but then word comes of a great war, brewing between Troy and Sparta. Patroclus is bound to go, by oath. Achilles is bound to follow him, for love and glory.The novel won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction, and is Miller's first published work.
The Song of Achilles	fetched	2023-11-14T12:30:09Z
The Song of Achilles	parsed	2023-11-14T12:30:09Z
The Song of Achilles	processingComment	Dropped link to Foil: Not a Feature - IGNORE
The Song of Achilles	processingComment	Dropped link to TheIliad: Not a Feature - ITEM
The Song of Achilles	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Song of Achilles / int_121b3725	type	Age Lift
The Song of Achilles / int_121b3725	comment	Age Lift: In ancient Greek versions Patroclus is noticeably older than Achilles (his grandmother Aegina is Achilles' great-grandmother), here they are the same age.
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The Song of Achilles / int_1242b9d4	type	Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal
The Song of Achilles / int_1242b9d4	comment	Double Standard: Rape, Divine on Mortal: A rare inversion: the sea-goddess Thetis was raped and kidnapped by Peleus, but all of the other gods gave him permission to do it, because Peleus is very pious. They make Thetis stay with Peleus for a year and a day, but after that she has nothing to do with the mortal.
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The Song of Achilles / int_14ed6ab7	type	Does This Remind You of Anything?
The Song of Achilles / int_14ed6ab7	comment	Does This Remind You of Anything?: Objections to Achilles' and Patroclus' relationship are largely based around the fact that Achilles is a demigod and Patroclus a mortal; that Achilles is a prince and a hero and Patroclus an exile and not a warrior; or that their broadly acceptable-in-context homosexual relationship is too exclusive and carried on too semi-openly after they are adults. But the parallels to contemporary homophobia are pretty clear and obviously deliberate. Thetis spends the entire novel trying to separate her son and his lover, on the basis that he'll be less likely to want to leave his life behind and become a god if he's in love with a mortal. You don't have to squint too hard to see a contemporary human parent who wants to push her son to live the life she chose for him (i.e. marry a woman and produce grandchildren), however. Pyrrhus, who never even meets his natural father Achilles, is adamant in refusing Achilles' final wish to be buried in the same tomb as Patroclus. His obvious spite while insisting that he's only protecting his father's legacy is reminiscent of sadly very real instances, where estranged relatives have refused to acknowledge or respect a same-sex couple's relationship at the end of their lives.
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The Song of Achilles / int_15b2cab3	type	Tempting Fate
The Song of Achilles / int_15b2cab3	comment	Tempting Fate: "What has Hector ever done to me?" Achilles asks. Anyone familiar with the story knows that Hector is going to make Achilles very, very angry.
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The Song of Achilles / int_19851b86	type	The Sociopath
The Song of Achilles / int_19851b86	comment	His son Pyrrhus is worse, very likely being The Sociopath who displays no emotions beyond sadism and pride in his abilities and his name.
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The Song of Achilles / int_1af921a3	type	Either/Or Prophecy
The Song of Achilles / int_1af921a3	comment	Either/Or Prophecy: If they're not set in stone. For example, Achilles can either be famous but die at Troy, or live an obscure but long life.
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The Song of Achilles / int_1c8e096e	type	Childhood Friend Romance
The Song of Achilles / int_1c8e096e	comment	Childhood Friend Romance: Patroclus becomes friends with Achilles when they're both young boys, and they gradually fall in love as they spend more time together, officially getting together when they're teenagers and remaining as lovers well into adulthood.
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The Song of Achilles / int_20f689e9	type	Adaptational Villainy
The Song of Achilles / int_20f689e9	comment	Adaptational Villainy: Peleus outright raping Thetis is original to the book (although their relationship is still questionable by modern standards). In the original myth Achilles's marriage to Deidamia was mutually consensual and Thetis had no part in it. While in the original myth Pyrrhus/Neoptolemus was far from an upstanding figure, he didn't murder Briseis or have any particular dislike for Patroclus.
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The Song of Achilles / int_24321e44	type	Only Sane Man
The Song of Achilles / int_24321e44	comment	Only Sane Man: Odysseus (mostly unsuccessfully) tries to play peacemaker between the Greek leaders. Patroclus later tries to be this with Achilles (a lot) and successfully with Agamemnon (once) when the latter is too stupid to realize that raping Briseis will give Achilles an excuse to kill him. Agamemnon realizes what thin ice he's on not only Patroclus spelling out what will happen, but also the realization that since nobody else told him this themselves (even though someone like Odysseus would most certainly have figured it out), it means the others are desperate enough to want him out of the picture.
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The Song of Achilles / int_259d5879	type	Anachronism Stew
The Song of Achilles / int_259d5879	comment	Anachronism Stew: It's a minor thing. The time period that the Iliad was supposedly set in was Mycenaean Greece, meaning the Bronze Age. In the first few pages iron spears are already mentioned. This was probably intentional, since Madeline Miller has said that she didn't try to portray Mycenaean Greece exactly, but more so to the Greece portrayed in Homer, and he already had plenty of anachronisms himself.
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The Song of Achilles / int_25b4ad2f	type	Surprisingly Happy Ending
The Song of Achilles / int_25b4ad2f	comment	Surprisingly Happy Ending: Patroclus dies, Achilles dies, and they're separated in death. Briseis is dead. All of the Greeks have sailed away, and there is no one left to name Patroclus on the headstone. It looks like he might be a homeless spirit forever... until Thetis, in the last paragraph, writes Patroclus' name on Achilles' monument, permitting him to join his beloved in the afterlife.
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The Song of Achilles / int_2673425b	type	Kid Hero
The Song of Achilles / int_2673425b	comment	Kid Hero: Pyrrhus, an incredible fighter who joins the Greeks at Troy when he is all of twelve. This trope is then Played for Drama - Pyrrhus is only this way because he was raised by a divine grandmother, and he's a Creepy Child bordering on sociopathic who kills even infants without hesitation, and also has the body and lusts of an adult man.
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The Song of Achilles / int_2692393	type	The Women Are Safe with Us
The Song of Achilles / int_2692393	comment	The Women Are Safe with Us: Achilles' and Patroclus' camp becomes this during the war, with Achilles specifically claiming war captives (at Patroclus' prompting) to spare them from being abused by the other Greeks. Though most of the women eventually do go on to marry Greek soldiers it's under considerably less duress than if they had been claimed by others.
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The Song of Achilles / int_278a8f2b	type	ChildSoldier
The Song of Achilles / int_278a8f2b	comment	Child Soldier: Achilles is a downplayed version of this, first fighting at sixteen. But oh, his son Pyrrhus plays this straight to a T, as he's just twelve when he fights.
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The Song of Achilles / int_27fdd6a1	type	Divine Parentage
The Song of Achilles / int_27fdd6a1	comment	Divine Parentage: Achilles's mother is Thetis, a sea nymph (an actual sea-goddess according to Greek mythology).
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The Song of Achilles / int_2848e7d2	type	Oblivious to Love
The Song of Achilles / int_2848e7d2	comment	Oblivious to Love: Achilles is this to Deidameia, painfully so. Patroclus often wants to remind him to be kinder to her, but he'd always realize that he's not being cruel, just uninterested. Patroclus is this in the earlier chapters for Achilles. Really Patroclus, you tell us that Achilles leapt onto your bed to tell you good morning, leaned in so close that your noses touched, and you didn't notice a thing? Downplayed in that it's relatively debatable as to when exactly Achilles first fell for Patroclus, and Patroclus was more so unsure of how Achilles felt for him.
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The Song of Achilles / int_2bb06191	type	Adaptational Sexuality
The Song of Achilles / int_2bb06191	comment	Adaptational Sexuality: In the Iliad, Achilles was explicitly attracted to women and his relationship to Patroclus was Ho Yay, Homoerotic Subtext, or Homoerotic Subtext that essentially is text. Here he's completely oblivious to even his own wife's attraction to him, and completely devoted to Patroclus.
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The Song of Achilles / int_2f1ddb04	type	Perfect Health
The Song of Achilles / int_2f1ddb04	comment	Perfect Health: Patroclus was remarked as this growing. But his dad only saw it as a nuisance, and even suspicious, thinking that he got a useless changeling instead. Father of the year.
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The Song of Achilles / int_362461f6	type	Sex Slave
The Song of Achilles / int_362461f6	comment	Sex Slave: Briseis is threatened with this repeatedly; when she is first captured, she is expecting this from Achilles, though she is actually perfectly safe from him. Later, Agamemnon claims her to humiliate Achilles, and was clearly intending to rape her until Patroclus points out that this would be such an insult to Achilles that it would give Achilles an excuse to kill him. Finally, she is claimed by Pyrrhus who announces his intention to punish her for "lying" about how much Achilles loved Patroclus, and then kills her when she tries to flee. Poor Andromache is also claimed by Pyrrhus, meaning she has to submit to the son of the man who killed her husband... and who also viciously killed her baby son in front of her.'
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The Song of Achilles / int_3ab3dbb	type	Adaptational Protagonist
The Song of Achilles / int_3ab3dbb	comment	Adaptational Protagonist: In this adaptation of The Iliad, Achilles' companion, Patroclus, becomes the protagonist. The beginning of the book is solely focused on his childhood, and later on, his interactions with Achilles as a child. The story here is largely about the two characters' love, and less time is spent on the Trojan War. Patroclus remains the protagonist even when he has already died: he retells the last few chapters as a ghost.
The Song of Achilles / int_3ab3dbb	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Song of Achilles / int_3bc88a7f	type	Foregone Conclusion
The Song of Achilles / int_3bc88a7f	comment	Foregone Conclusion: Anyone who's read The Iliad knows that Patroclus will die to save Achilles' glory, and Achilles will go mad with grief, kill Hector in revenge, and then be killed himself.
The Song of Achilles / int_3bc88a7f	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Song of Achilles / int_3be94971	type	Glory Seeker
The Song of Achilles / int_3be94971	comment	Glory Seeker: To a man of ancient Greece, a long life withering into obscurity is a curse. Achilles elects to go to Troy because it means his demi-godhood will be seen by all, and he'll live forever in song (and it turns out, this works). This applies to many of the other heroes as well, though Pyrrhus takes the cake, as he seems incapable of any emotions beyond pride and sadism.
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The Song of Achilles / int_3d5377e5	type	First-Person Peripheral Narrator
The Song of Achilles / int_3d5377e5	comment	First-Person Peripheral Narrator: Patroclus comes pretty close to being a bit player in his own story.
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The Song of Achilles / int_40cc0c7e	type	Bittersweet Ending
The Song of Achilles / int_40cc0c7e	comment	Bittersweet Ending: Yes, everybody you love ends up dying, but Patroclus and Achilles finally manage to find each other in the underworld and reunite once again.
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The Song of Achilles / int_42c9f1ec	type	Downplayed Trope
The Song of Achilles / int_42c9f1ec	comment	For most of the book he's actually quite the sweetheart, but Achilles starts having some shades of this after he first murders, at age sixteen. Only a few days ago he was traumatized after seeing Iphigenia sacrificed, so it's unsettling to see him so comfortable with death.
The Song of Achilles / int_42c9f1ec	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Song of Achilles / int_43ae1aba	type	World's Most Beautiful Woman
The Song of Achilles / int_43ae1aba	comment	World's Most Beautiful Woman: Helen is said to be this - and with Zeus as her father, people don't doubt - but Patroclus, our narrator, never sees her, not even when he goes to war to fight for her!
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The Song of Achilles / int_469e3e2f	type	In-Universe
The Song of Achilles / int_469e3e2f	comment	An In-Universe example. The first time Patroclus meets an adult Odysseus, he tricks Achilles into revealing himself, blackmails him into going to war (and his death) and reveals he knew the entire time who they were. This colors Patroclus' feelings of and ability to trust him which heavily prevents Odysseus from playing Only Sane Man to Achilles.
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The Song of Achilles / int_47a0a3b7	type	Adaptational Consent
The Song of Achilles / int_47a0a3b7	comment	Adaptational Consent: In the original myth, Peleus and Thetis married after he managed to restrain her and she consented to marrying him as a Best Her to Bed Her challenge, while in this story he instead raped her and conceived Achilles. As a result the two have a considerably worse relationship.
The Song of Achilles / int_47a0a3b7	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Song of Achilles / int_4e3dee88	type	Their First Time
The Song of Achilles / int_4e3dee88	comment	Their First Time: Discusses in the beginning of chapter six. It's said that even by the young age of ''thirteen'' Achilles and Patroclus were considered almost late for still being virgins, and that all of the other boys in the palace had done so with slaves. Achilles and Patroclus do consummate once they're sixteen though.
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The Song of Achilles / int_4e7c4536	type	Wham Line
The Song of Achilles / int_4e7c4536	comment	Wham Line: Several years into the war, Thetis comes bearing a prophecy that the best of the Myrmidons will die before two more years have passed. Achilles and Patroclus initially think little of the prophecy, speculating that it probably refers to Ajax, the greatest soldier among the Greeks after Achilles. Then after Achilles and Agamemnon's falling out, Briseis refers to Patroclus as the "Best of men. Best of the Myrmidons."
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The Song of Achilles / int_59e24999	type	Supernaturally Marked Grave
The Song of Achilles / int_59e24999	comment	Supernaturally Marked Grave: At the very end, Thetis relents and writes Patroclus' name on Achilles' monument so they can be Together in Death.
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The Song of Achilles / int_5a365ed2	type	Incompatible Orientation
The Song of Achilles / int_5a365ed2	comment	Incompatible Orientation: When Patroclus first brings Briseis back to the tent he shares with Achilles she's clearly dreading what they'll do to her, and with the language barrier making it difficult to convey that they won't harm her Patroclus simply grabs Achilles and kisses him on the mouth to get the point across. Later played for tragedy, as Briseis genuinely falls in love with Patroclus, and hopes that he might be someone who could take both a wife and a lover, while Patroclus can only respond that he could never truly have feelings for her while he loves Achilles. He still cares for her deeply. Happens first between Achilles and Deidameia, where she genuinely falls for him but he feels nothing for her.
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The Song of Achilles / int_5a40d6a	type	Adaptation Distillation
The Song of Achilles / int_5a40d6a	comment	Adaptation Distillation: The entire Iphigenia arc is only included as a footnote.
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The Song of Achilles / int_5ce7dbb9	type	Central Theme
The Song of Achilles / int_5ce7dbb9	comment	Central Theme: Undying love and devotion.
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The Song of Achilles / int_5db59a03	type	Brown Note
The Song of Achilles / int_5db59a03	comment	Brown Note: The effect of seeing Thetis, and presumably any other god, in the flesh is a more mild version of this on mortals, and Thetis is described as being difficult to look at directly and causing severe discomfort in anyone around her. While training with Chiron Patroclus eventually learns to recognize when she's coming because everything, including the animals, go silent prior to her appearing.
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The Song of Achilles / int_6682d6e4	type	Dying Moment of Awesome
The Song of Achilles / int_6682d6e4	comment	Dying Moment of Awesome: Briseis actually lands a knife blow on Pyrrhus, even if it isn't serious, and manages to get to the sea and nearly escapes before he kills her.
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The Song of Achilles / int_674fcb07	type	Signature Line
The Song of Achilles / int_674fcb07	comment	Signature Line: “I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.” “He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”
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The Song of Achilles / int_6c87dbef	type	Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration
The Song of Achilles / int_6c87dbef	comment	Masturbation Means Sexual Frustration: During their stay with Chiron in Pelion, Patroclus mentions sneaking off in the mornings and during Achilles’s spear-throwing practice under the pretense of practicing the flute. Inevitably, it always results in this, and he alludes to imagining having sex with Achilles while he’s doing it.
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The Song of Achilles / int_6fe06cc5	type	FootFocus
The Song of Achilles / int_6fe06cc5	comment	Foot Focus: Patroclus' loving descriptions of Achilles' grace and beauty seem to bring up his feet rather a lot.
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The Song of Achilles / int_7241785e	type	You Can't Fight Fate
The Song of Achilles / int_7241785e	comment	You Can't Fight Fate: All prophecies are set in stone, except for the ones that are an Either/Or Prophecy.
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The Song of Achilles / int_73f7975f	type	Jerkass Gods
The Song of Achilles / int_73f7975f	comment	Jerkass Gods: The focus is on Achilles' mother, the sea-goddess Thetis, who loves him (in her way) but loathes Patroclus, Achilles' beloved. Thetis doesn't care whose life she destroys as long as Achilles fulfills his glorious potential. Eventually, she relents towards Patroclus. Years and years after his death. Thetis' story revealed at the end shows that the other gods were just as awful to her. It was prophesied that her son would be greater than his father, so the permission that they gave Peleus to rape and marry her by force as a reward for his piety was actually them ensuring the father of her child would be a mortal, so that a stronger son would still be no threat to them.
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The Song of Achilles / int_7464705c	type	Arc Words
The Song of Achilles / int_7464705c	comment	Arc Words: "What has Hector ever done to me?"
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The Song of Achilles / int_77ed6b7d	type	Troubling Unchildlike Behavior
The Song of Achilles / int_77ed6b7d	comment	Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: For most of the book he's actually quite the sweetheart, but Achilles starts having some shades of this after he first murders, at age sixteen. Only a few days ago he was traumatized after seeing Iphigenia sacrificed, so it's unsettling to see him so comfortable with death. But again, Pyrrhus is a much straighter example of this, since he's a killer and rapist at twelve.
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The Song of Achilles / int_78540917	type	Like Brother and Sister
The Song of Achilles / int_78540917	comment	Like Brother and Sister: Said almost word-for-word by Briseis about her relationship with Patroclus, after they both realise that he'll never return her romantic feelings for him (even if he is briefly tempted at the thought of having a conventional marriage and fathering children with her). They both die before they get a chance to really follow through on their vow to live as loving siblings, however.
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The Song of Achilles / int_7abba202	type	The Faceless
The Song of Achilles / int_7abba202	comment	The Faceless: Helen is veiled when the suitors bid for her hand, so Patroclus never gets to see what she looks like.
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The Song of Achilles / int_7b39c3d8	type	El Cid Ploy
The Song of Achilles / int_7b39c3d8	comment	El Cid Ploy: A classic part of the Achilles myth; Patroclus borrows his armor and impersonates him.
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The Song of Achilles / int_7d89315b	type	"The Reason You Suck" Speech
The Song of Achilles / int_7d89315b	comment	"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Achilles tells Briseis to get away from Patroclus' body, which she is in the middle of washing for burial. She does not get away, or get out. Instead she asks 'Do you think you are the only one who loved him?' and when Achilles starts screaming at her, she flat out tells him he didn't deserve Patroclus and that he's responsible for the death of his beloved thanks to his arrogance and selfishness, and she hopes Hector kills him.
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The Song of Achilles / int_7febc23b	type	Establishing Character Moment
The Song of Achilles / int_7febc23b	comment	Establishing Character Moment: An In-Universe example. The first time Patroclus meets an adult Odysseus, he tricks Achilles into revealing himself, blackmails him into going to war (and his death) and reveals he knew the entire time who they were. This colors Patroclus' feelings of and ability to trust him which heavily prevents Odysseus from playing Only Sane Man to Achilles. A mutual in-universe one occurs when Achilles first meets Agamemnon. The latter is expecting to receive pledges of allegiance from Achilles, while the Achilles very deliberately addresses him as an equal, and Odysseus has to save the situation when Agamemnon lacks the social grace to save face without help. This lets both men know the pride and stubbornness of the other, and also sets them against each other right from the start.
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The Song of Achilles / int_8414865	type	Aroused by Their Voice
The Song of Achilles / int_8414865	comment	Aroused by Their Voice: When Helen speaks, all the suitors are visibly smitten. Even young Patroclus can feel it.
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The Song of Achilles / int_8a817c2a	type	Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil
The Song of Achilles / int_8a817c2a	comment	Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: Zig-zagged. The first rape we hear of is committed against Thetis in the Back Story by, of all people King Peleus, albeit under direct instruction from the gods. Later, however, this view seems more prevalent (at least with kind-hearted Patroclus), though even when he considers raping "spoils of war" to be wrong, he only reacts with real horror when it's threatened to someone he personally cares about. Pyrrhus is killed by Agammenon's son for kidnapping and raping his bride; while that might have been more due to the insult to the man's honour than the attack upon the woman, Patroclus's shade is disgusted when he hears of it and bitterly asks Thetis if this was the son she preferred to Achilles. Arguably justified by Deliberate Values Dissonance.
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The Song of Achilles / int_8a9eb844	type	Perspective Flip
The Song of Achilles / int_8a9eb844	comment	Perspective Flip: The Iliad from the point of view of a secondary character, who barely does any fighting.
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The Song of Achilles / int_90d44f44	type	Karmic Death
The Song of Achilles / int_90d44f44	comment	Karmic Death: Pyrrhus is certain his name will be as great or even greater than his father's, while both in this story and in classic mythology he dies incredibly young, meeting a shameful end when he kidnaps and rapes the bride of Orestes, who kills him for it. Pyrrhus says to Briseis, when she asks him what he would have of her, "Whatever I want," and kills her when she attacks him and tries to escape; Patroclus's shade remembers Pyrrhus' words when he hears of the circumstances of the boy's death, emphasizing how his cruelty both ruled and doomed him.
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The Song of Achilles / int_9400b3b5	type	Questionable Consent
The Song of Achilles / int_9400b3b5	comment	Peleus outright raping Thetis is original to the book (although their relationship is still questionable by modern standards).
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The Song of Achilles / int_9c9115c1	type	ArcherArchetype
The Song of Achilles / int_9c9115c1	comment	Archer Archetype: Discussed in-universe, Patroclus mentions that archers are usually considered to be cowards, but no one would say this about Philoctetes, the last surviving companion of Heracles, whose bow and arrow skills are legendary.
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The Song of Achilles / int_9d12bbc1	type	Foreshadowing
The Song of Achilles / int_9d12bbc1	comment	Foreshadowing: A subtle one, but Patroclus mentions walking on hyacinth flowers before he kisses Achilles. Hyacinths in Greek myth came from Hyacinthus, Apollo's most famous male lover. He's also one of the most famous to die. Chiron tells the story of Heracles and his family. Hera hated him for being the bastard son of Zeus, so to punish him he made him mad so that he'd kill his wife and children. Achilles asks why Heracles's punishment involved someone else's death, especially his wife's, and Chiron replies that it would be even more sorrowful for a lover to live when their other half is dead. It obviously foreshadows Achilles's famous grief, but it's also fitting because in a way, it was Achilles's fault for his lover's death.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a0db7803	type	It's Personal
The Song of Achilles / int_a0db7803	comment	It's Personal: Achilles ultimately kills Hector because he killed Patroclus, and he has become a Death Seeker who wants to accelerate the prophecy that Hector must die before him. Plus, he wants revenge.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a148f27b	type	Living Legend
The Song of Achilles / int_a148f27b	comment	Living Legend: Achilles himself is one - thanks to his goddess mother, his speed and skill at arms make him Aristos Achaion, the Best of the Greeks. Other Living Legends of their time include the massive Ajax; the son of Zeus, Sarpedon; the powerful and pious Hector; and the aged Philoctetes.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a1b141f4	type	My God, What Have I Done?
The Song of Achilles / int_a1b141f4	comment	My God, What Have I Done?: In the end Thetis seems to regret the way she raised and treated her son and especially her grandson, particularly since the latter ends up a vile rapist (perhaps reminding her of her own treatment by the gods) and gets himself killed due to his sociopathic tendencies and lust.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a2cbad1	type	Half-Human Hybrid
The Song of Achilles / int_a2cbad1	comment	Half-Human Hybrid: Achilles is half-god, half-mortal. Another half-god (son of Zeus, in this case) is the mighty and immense Sarpedon. And of course, there's Helen.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a5de0ab9	type	Polyamory
The Song of Achilles / int_a5de0ab9	comment	Polyamory: Briseis insists that though she's fallen in love with Patroclus, she doesn't wish to see him and Achilles separated, only to be his wife and bear children with him while he keeps Achilles as his lover. It's enough to make Patroclus briefly reconsider her proposition — though ultimately he decides he can't follow this trope, as he can only ever truly love Achilles.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a63fd70f	type	The Promise
The Song of Achilles / int_a63fd70f	comment	The Promise: All of the men who came to woo Helen, daughter of Zeus, have to swear a vow that if Helen is ever abducted, they will all help her rightful husband to get her back. Even the pipsqueak Patroclus has to swear this (though as Achilles points out, he could have avoided it as he swore with his father's name, that he lost when exiled).
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The Song of Achilles / int_a679184b	type	Due to the Dead
The Song of Achilles / int_a679184b	comment	Due to the Dead: Since the book is set in ancient Greece, correct funeral rites are of utmost importance. It becomes an important plot point later when Patroclus is unable to join Achilles in the underworld because he has not been buried properly; and at the end of the novel Patroclus fears that Briseis may never be able to find rest, since Pyrrhus kills her when she tries to flee him and her body is lost to the ocean. After killing Hector, Achilles refuses to return his body, not feeling sufficient vengeance has been done, and desecrates the body by dragging it around Troy in his cart, something that upsets even his own men and mother.
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The Song of Achilles / int_a8357dc2	type	No Woman's Land
The Song of Achilles / int_a8357dc2	comment	No Woman's Land: Nearly every female character is affected by the misogyny of ancient Greece, from Briseis being a Sex Slave, Deidameia feeling ashamed of herself for having sex unmarried, to Thetis's forced marriage and all that it entails. It's implied that Thetis's bigotry towards mortals is because her immortality is the only privilege she has as a female sea nymph.
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The Song of Achilles / int_aabe2fb	type	Deliberate Values Dissonance
The Song of Achilles / int_aabe2fb	comment	Deliberate Values Dissonance: Madeline Miller worked very hard to portray ancient Greek values accurately, even if many of them wouldn't be considered politically correct today. Aside from the most emphasized sexism (see No Woman's Land) there's also the slavery, complete obedience to Jerkass Gods, and the dangerous sense of honor that drives the Greeks and the Trojans to spend ten years warring with each other. Patroclus is the only character who questions some of these values, but at the same time he's so desensitized to it that he isn't as aghast to these practices as someone from the modern day might be.
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The Song of Achilles / int_ab5eea65	type	Dramatic Irony
The Song of Achilles / int_ab5eea65	comment	Dramatic Irony: Half the foreshadowing, especially since Achilles' and Patroclus' fate, is a Foregone Conclusion. Odysseus's Doting Parent Happily Married family man traits are highlighted, making his inevitable ten-year journey home all the more tragic. The fate of most of the Greeks. The atrocities committed during the sack of Troy will anger the gods and most of the Greeks will lose divine favor and meet ignominious ends at sea. Thus the emphasis on glory, riches and victory rings a bit hollow. Pyrrhus is quite certain that his name will be as great or greater than his father's, and when Odysseus tries to convince him that reputation isn't everything, half-jokingly saying that in future centuries even his name will be better known than Pyrrhus', Pyrrhus is contemptuously dismissive. Meanwhile in literary circles Pyrrhus is still introduced as "Achilles's son" and the average person today might not have even heard of him (in particular he isn't even mentioned in The Iliad, the most famous narrative of the Trojan War, albeit the poem proper ends before Achilles' death, Pyrrhus' arrival and the end of the war) while Patroclus is far more well known and Odysseus has a good claim to eclipsing Achilles himself.
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The Song of Achilles / int_aba8065b	type	Fatal Flaw
The Song of Achilles / int_aba8065b	comment	Fatal Flaw: Pride. Achilles and Agamemnon nearly destroy the Greeks' chance of victory through their refusal to back down, and willingness to let countless soldiers die rather than feel humiliated, even knowing that they run the risk of being hated by the very subordinates they are trying to impress.
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The Song of Achilles / int_b1c8e04e	type	Marital Rape License
The Song of Achilles / int_b1c8e04e	comment	Marital Rape License: The gods allow Peleus to assault Thetis once she becomes his wife. This results in the birth of Achilles.
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The Song of Achilles / int_b333f02e	type	Achilles in His Tent
The Song of Achilles / int_b333f02e	comment	Achilles in His Tent: Duh. The book humanises his selfishness slightly, by reminding the reader that Achilles' knowledge of the prophecy about him means he has literally given his life for his legacy, and Agamemnon genuinely is being a total idiot. It still does not shy away from how many lives are being lost because of Achilles' pride.
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The Song of Achilles / int_b7c53a22	type	Blood Knight
The Song of Achilles / int_b7c53a22	comment	Blood Knight: Achilles. Oh, how he loves to fight, because it lets his divine gifts at speed and fighting truly shine. His son Pyrrhus is worse, very likely being The Sociopath who displays no emotions beyond sadism and pride in his abilities and his name.
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The Song of Achilles / int_b7cd068f	type	Skilled, but Naive
The Song of Achilles / int_b7cd068f	comment	Skilled, but Naive: Achilles is the greatest warrior of his generation and generations past, but his innocence and lack of cunning often makes him easily manipulable.
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The Song of Achilles / int_bb5126ec	type	Prophecy Twist
The Song of Achilles / int_bb5126ec	comment	Prophecy Twist: Near the start of the war, Achilles and Patroclus learn that Achilles is safe until "the best of the Myrmidons" dies, and they try to work out who that might be, because it certainly couldn't be Non-Action Guy Patroclus. Shame he didn't remember that 10 years later, when Briseis unwittingly bestows this title on him due to his kindness and generosity. Right at the end of the book we learn that it was prophesied that Thetis' son would be greater than his father, so the gods got around the threat it could pose to them if she were impregnated by a mighty god by having the mortal Peleus father her son.
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The Song of Achilles / int_bb7ae292	type	Child by Rape
The Song of Achilles / int_bb7ae292	comment	Child by Rape: Both Achilles and his son, Pyrrhus, in this retelling. Just to highlight the Deliberate Values Dissonance in the story, Thetis — Achilles' mother and the victim in the first instance of this trope — engineers the coercive rape of Achilles to conceive Pyrrhus.
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The Song of Achilles / int_bc74ef27	type	Berserk Button
The Song of Achilles / int_bc74ef27	comment	Berserk Button: Achilles's normally aloof exterior breaks when his honor is threatened, However, it is only when he finds out Patroclus is dead that he truly goes mad with rage. Even unflinching Thetis is put off by his behaviour when dealing Hector's body.
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The Song of Achilles / int_c289826f	type	Double Standard Rape: Female on Male
The Song of Achilles / int_c289826f	comment	Thetis was raped and kidnapped by Peleus, and forced by the other gods into a marriage she didn't want, even if she only had to stay with Peleus for a year and a day. She later manipulates Achilles into having sex with Deidameia even though he clearly says he doesn't want to and only does it for a chance to see Patroclus again.
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The Song of Achilles / int_c3c18143	type	Hope Spot
The Song of Achilles / int_c3c18143	comment	Hope Spot: When Briseis is attempting to flee Pyrrhus by swimming out to sea, there's a moment where Patroclus' ghost is certain she'll get away, as she's a very strong swimmer and is already out of range of most weapons — but sadly, not out of range of Pyrrhus' thrown spear; and it's clear that he could have killed her at any point in her flight but chose to wait until she believed she'd escaped him.
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The Song of Achilles / int_c9597a03	type	Self-Deprecation
The Song of Achilles / int_c9597a03	comment	Self-Deprecation: Patroclus does this a lot, especially when he compares himself to others. Much of this is due the people in his life, notably his own father, constantly criticizing him.
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The Song of Achilles / int_cc1bd54d	type	Non-Action Guy
The Song of Achilles / int_cc1bd54d	comment	Near the start of the war, Achilles and Patroclus learn that Achilles is safe until "the best of the Myrmidons" dies, and they try to work out who that might be, because it certainly couldn't be Non-Action Guy Patroclus. Shame he didn't remember that 10 years later, when Briseis unwittingly bestows this title on him due to his kindness and generosity.
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The Song of Achilles / int_d39e327f	type	What the Hell, Hero?
The Song of Achilles / int_d39e327f	comment	What the Hell, Hero?: Achilles' indifference to the lives of the common soldiers is excused by Patroclus as an inevitable result of Achilles' ability to kill so many so effortlessly, but Patroclus is horrified that Achilles would allow Agamemnon to take and rape Briseis simply to get an excuse to kill him. He also pulls no punches with how self-defeating Achilles is being with his refusal to fight.
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The Song of Achilles / int_d52d28b6	type	Hypocrite
The Song of Achilles / int_d52d28b6	comment	Hypocrite: A subtle one with Odysseus. He blackmails and goads Achilles into joining the war with a choice of glory or an ignominious death. However, it's hinted that he tried to avoid the war himself when Patroclus notices his farmer's calluses. (In the myths Odysseus pretended to be mad and sow salt until Palamedes revealed him.) Thetis was raped and kidnapped by Peleus, and forced by the other gods into a marriage she didn't want, even if she only had to stay with Peleus for a year and a day. She later manipulates Achilles into having sex with Deidameia even though he clearly says he doesn't want to and only does it for a chance to see Patroclus again.
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The Song of Achilles / int_d7639dba	type	Achilles' Heel
The Song of Achilles / int_d7639dba	comment	Achilles' Heel: A notable aversion. Like in the earliest, Homeric tellings of The Iliad, Achilles doesn't have a weak point, he's just extraordinarily skilled in battle. He dies after getting shot in the heart just like a normal soldier. Metaphorically, it was Achilles's pride that ultimately did him in, although the heel is lightly referenced.
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The Song of Achilles / int_e003c829	type	History Repeats
The Song of Achilles / int_e003c829	comment	History Repeats: At the end of the book, Patroclus as a ghost learns that Pyrrhus abducted and raped the bride of Agamemnon's son, much as Paris abducted Helen; if you're well-versed with the Classics, you'll know that bride is Hermione, Helen's daughter. And like Paris, Pyrrhus is killed for his crime. It's also a repetition of the rivalry between Achilles and Agamemnon over a woman, only this time Orestes is the one who's justified in his wrath and wins their conflict.
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The Song of Achilles / int_e1471b66	type	MamasBoy
The Song of Achilles / int_e1471b66	comment	Mama's Boy: But then again, if your mother was a divine sea nymph who planned to make you into a god, you'd probably go along with her plans, too.
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The Song of Achilles / int_e3b0cd87	type	Morality Pet
The Song of Achilles / int_e3b0cd87	comment	Morality Pet: Patroclus is this to Achilles. It's not that the demigod is a villain, but he doesn't care about most things the way normal humans do, except for how much he loves Patroclus. It is at his lover's request that he begins taking in the women to save them from becoming sex slaves. Invoked. Phoenix tells the story of a hero that lost all his fame by failing to give suport in time due to hubris, only moving when his wife Cleopatra begged him to go and help the people. Although it seems to fly over Achilles's head, that was a very blatant attempt by the others to have Patroclus act the same way to get Achilles back to the war. It fails, as even with him begging and crying, Achilles still says that is the one thing he refuses to do for Patroclus.
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The Song of Achilles / int_eb81c601	type	Big Damn Heroes
The Song of Achilles / int_eb81c601	comment	Big Damn Heroes: Invoked by Patroclus when he comes storming in with Achilles's armour on to rouse the Greek soldiers to fight and scare off the Trojans. It worked for a beautiful amount of time, and then, because of Apollo, it got worse.
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The Song of Achilles / int_f18c7347	type	Twisting the Prophecy
The Song of Achilles / int_f18c7347	comment	Twisting the Prophecy: Thetis was prophesied to bear a son greater than his father. In order to ensure that she wouldn't give birth to a monstrously powerful being who would overthrow them, the Greek gods forcibly married her to the mortal Peleus, who raped her, resulting in the exceedingly powerful but very mortal demigod Achilles.
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The Song of Achilles / int_fd497706	type	Accidental Murder
The Song of Achilles / int_fd497706	comment	Accidental Murder: Patroclus, as a boy, pushes over a bigger boy who is bullying him, and by bad luck, cracks his skull. This instance is echoed in his later fight against Sarpedon - who is killed by a very lucky fall from a chariot, that breaks his neck.
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The Song of Achilles / int_fdee662	type	Semi-Divine
The Song of Achilles / int_fdee662	comment	Semi-Divine: This being a retelling of the Iliad, the world is full of them. Achilles himself is the most obvious, but there's also Helen and Sarpedon, both children of Zeus, and Aeneas, son of Aphrodite. Heracles and Polydeuces are also mentioned in passing.
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The Song of Achilles / int_ff251a68	type	Doting Parent
The Song of Achilles / int_ff251a68	comment	Odysseus's Doting Parent Happily Married family man traits are highlighted, making his inevitable ten-year journey home all the more tragic.
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The Song of Achilles / int_ffad4e9f	type	Shown Their Work
The Song of Achilles / int_ffad4e9f	comment	Shown Their Work: Madeline Miller was a Latin and Greek teacher, and it shows; the whole book is full of references to the more obscure parts of the The Trojan Cycle. Examples include the entire Scyros episode, Protesilaus dying first, and most of the action after Hector dies, amongst a lot of others. It's also got loads of references to Blink-and-You-Miss-It moments such as Patroclus being stabbed in the back before Hector kills him.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Achilles in His Tent / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Adaptational Consent / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Antiquated Linguistics / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	First-Person Peripheral Narrator / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Helpless Observer Protagonist / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Newbie Boom / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Pose of Supplication / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Queer Romance / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Rescued from the Scrappy Heap / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Signature Line / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Surprisingly Happy Ending / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	The Women Are Safe with Us / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Twisting the Prophecy / int_94ee07a1
The Song of Achilles	hasFeature	Two Roads Before You / int_94ee07a1

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