Book Review: The Song of Achilles

Since the release of The Odyssey last month, the Christopher Nolan film has earned over $1 billion worldwide. It's not just the talents of Nolan that drew people to the movie theaters — Americans love Greek history and myth.

Personally, I need to get into more pre-colonial mythos, but since I'm part of a dad's book club I don't always get to choose what I read. So it was that someone chose Song of Achilles, a book about another classical Greek hero we all still remember as the unbeatable half-god whose only weakness was found in his heel. We still refer to that body part as Achilles' Heel — a testament to the power of stories.

Song of Achilles is a 2011 New York Times bestseller written by Madeline Miller. Since classic "western" myths aren't my thing, I went into this book knowing almost nothing. I thought this was a creative retelling of Achilles' story; it wasn't until a couple of months later that I learned the story in the book is based on Book 24 of the Odyssey.

The main difference with this novel is that the story is told from the perspective of Patroclus, a man so close to Achilles that the ash from their bones were mixed together after their deaths and put into a golden vase belonging to Achilles' goddess mother, Thetis.

The book begins with the childhood of Patroclus, an exiled prince who is sent to live in the castle, in care of Achilles' father and king of a far away kingdom. There, the young boys bond over a lyre, a musical instrument once owned by Patroclus's deceased mother, but given to Achilles' father as part of a golden hoard meant to be payment for taking in Patroclus.

After a rough start, the boys begin to train together and become fast friends. Their adventures lead them to train with a famous centaur, learn medicine, fighting skills, and eventually, to love — but that's not its focus. Miller uses her exceptional writing to focus the reader on other aspects that we usually gloss over in our telling of stories: our humanity. In Song of Achilles, Miller uses the lyre and song throughout the book to remind us that these men who fought over a decade in the Trojan War were more than warriors. They also loved music and each other — these are important things to remember when telling humanity's story.

In this retelling, it wasn't a secret weak spot that killed Achilles — it was hubris. Achilles had two paths before him: fight and become the greatest warrior in history, or withdraw, be forgotten to history, and live a long life, presumably with the love of his life, Patroclus.

Achilles decided to choose his pride and shun love, even life itself, as he knew he was destined to be killed if he were to kill his rival, Hector. Achilles was brought down by an arrow guided by the sun god, Apollo, which struck Achilles in the heel — the only spot not covered by the waters of the river Styx when he was dipped in it by his mother.

My hypothesis of pride and life was only validated a few months later, when I read that in the Odyssey, Odysseus meets Achilles in the underworld. Achilles laments that instead of taking pride in his legacy, he would rather be a poor, living farm laborer than the majestic king of the dead.

On the whole, the book won me over with its excellent writing and new take on the subject matter. I suppose it pays to know a little bit about Greek mythology and not let pride get in my way from learning more. A good tip for life overall: Enjoy the music, don't let pride get in the way.