From a romance novel point of view the love story between the two didn't work for me because I think that throughout the book Patroclus was too dependent and clingy and I don't like that type of relationship. Thankfully the soft-core element of this story cools down enough to give us a look at the times, the idiocy of the Trojan War, and the ridiculousness of leadership, which does not seem to have changed all that much over the millennia. On Mount Pelion, the boys learn many things, including musicianship, medicine, and biology; they also begin a sexual relationship away from Thetis’s observation.

The Song of Achilles - Hardback by Madeline Miller (Paperback) The Song of Achilles - Hardback by Madeline Miller (Paperback)

i must be a masochist because i can think of no other reason to endure the emotional and stunning pain of this story for a fifth time. The cover art of this book usually depicts the golden armor/helmet/lyre of Achilles, and there’s an underlying message behind these cover arts; it contains mandatory advice that you should prepare yourself before reading this book. This is a minor change—none of those women except Deidamia and Briseis are important to the story—and I wouldn’t have minded Miller’s changing it had she written more and better female characters.

I love the way the author wrote this, I could really feel the desperate rage of an Achilles who had lost the only thing that mattered to him in the world. Homer may have been blind, but his ears must have heard the rustling of the reed mats whether he was an “eye” witness to the Trojan War or an interpreter of events many years later. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama, where she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller | Waterstones

She apparently doesn’t understand that Achilles isn’t the moral paragon of this story—the reason he refuses to fight isn’t because he thinks battle is wrong, or killing is evil; it’s because Agamemnon stole one of his slave woman before Achilles could rape her.

THE RELATIONSHIP, PART III: HOMOPHOBIAAnyone who says that ancient Greece was 100% accepting of homosexual relationships is factually incorrect. Patroclus - the lesser known hero - being the protagonist helps narrate the story of Achilles from a very unique standpoint. A fate prophesised by the gods, but a song that still needed to be sung, and music that future generations would continue to play !