The Song Of Achilles
Author: Madeline Miller
Originally Published: 2011
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
written by: Tina Nguyen | date: 25th September, 2025
“How much pride are you willing to sacrifice to save your love?” was the exact question that I always had in my mind while reading this book.
Patroclus, a Greek Prince, was a young boy who, unfortunately, was exiled and sent to live with King Peleus – Achilles’ father, the lifelong companion (or may we say lifelong lover) of Patroclus, because he accidentally killed a boy during a dice game. Patroclus acknowledged at a very young age that he was never the pride of his father, King Menoetius, that he was just like his mother – they were seen as weak and lacking a warlike nature in the era when all the Princes earned respect based on how strong and valiant they looked. Patroclus was his Father’s disappointment.
Heroic, chivalrous, and prideful Achilles, who people surrounded, grew accustomed to the attention and flattery from others, especially other young boys who aspired to be chosen as his companion. The character of Achilles was not hard to understand; most people would view him as an arrogant and egotistical young boy who took pride from his mother, the goddess Thetis, and inherited the confidence from his father, Peleus. However, author Miller successfully softened the hard and sharp edges of Achilles by portraying him through Patroclus’s first-person perspective.
“Had she really thought I would not know him? 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.”
A childhood friendship soon bloomed into a lifelong romance. All the hardships that they have been through, alongside the disapproval of Goddess Thetis, and years spent in Troy for the preparation for the Trojan War, only make the bond between the two of them stronger than ever.
But was their love strong enough for Achilles to choose it when it came to his pride?
At the end, Achilles’ pride took over his mind, partially becoming the cause of Patroclus’s death. I personally think that most people who have given this book a read can see that Patroclus’s love for Achilles was so big that it gave him the determination and bravery of his lover to step out into the warzone on Achilles’s behalf – wearing his bronze armor, his shield, his helmet, holding his spear, bringing his fierce and courage into the battlefield. Patroclus felt like a whole different person; he felt exactly how Achilles felt, blood rushing through his body when the Greek men cheered to have him – ‘Aristos Achaion’ (translation: the best of the Greeks) – was how they chanted for Achilles.
‘He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.’
Patroclus was so in love with Achilles that he acted exactly as Achilles had done throughout all the years they had been together as lovers. He studied every movement, every inch of pride, every attitude, every bit of chivalry, his aggressiveness, and even his craving for victory, by heart, and brought them into the war. Not only did Miller show that Patroclus was a trusted right-hand man of Aristos Achaion who could perfectly be his stunt and imitate him, but she also highlighted that Patroclus was Achilles. I think that this part was very crucial in the book, as it helped me understand that Patroclus’s feelings for Achilles, for more than 10 years, transformed drastically into the last sacrifice that Achilles had not chosen to do the same when Patroclus begged him to.
“He collects my ashes himself, though this is a woman’s duty. He puts them in a golden urn, the finest in our camp, and turns to the watching Greeks.
‘When I am dead, I charge you to mingle our ashes and bury us together.’”
Why was the book named “The Song Of Achilles” when there was no song mentioned in there? To my understanding, it was his own pride and ego that were singing loud and clear at first, or every time the Greek soldiers gloriously chanted Aristos Achaion only for Achilles, or even at the end, that song could be Achilles’s mad, painful, and suffering cry for losing his soulmate, his lover. (But this is up to how other readers interpret the word “song” in the title; these are how I viewed it and hopefully, my perspectives widened the ways you understand this book).
“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood, like a hundred golden urns pouring out the sun.”
It took me 1 and a half months to finish The Song Of Achilles. This is definitely one of the hardest and longest reads I’ve ever had before – the characters’ complexities, how they acted, and most importantly, I had to brace myself to get familiar with Greek mythology. Since a lot was going on in the book – Patroclus and Achilles’ character development, the historical events, and the magical myths, making it an overwhelming but beautiful experience at the same time.