The hero Achilles and his friend and lover Patroclus
The love and tragedy of two lovers shining in the bloody battlefield

Patroclus, the narrator and first protagonist of this novel, appears in the Iliad, but is a minor character who is not easily found.
However, regardless of the specificity, when looking at the overall course of the Iliad, Patroclus's role can be said to be significant in the play.
After the hero Achilles was insulted by his commander-in-chief, Agamemnon, and withdrew from the battle, it was the grief and anger caused by the death of Patroclus that brought him back to the battlefield, despite the horrific loss of life suffered by the Greek army.
Madeline Miller says she was captivated by this story and this seemingly insignificant character.
"Who was this man so precious to Achilles? And why was Achilles so devastated by his loss?" "The Song of Achilles" is her own answer to this question.

The story begins long before the Trojan War, when the two main characters were children.
Greece is now in the age of heroes.
Born a prince, Patroclus was a pitiful son who had already disappointed his father's expectations at a young age, as he was 'small, thin, slow, and not strong.'
He was exiled to a foreign country at the age of ten after accidentally killing a boy who had been bullying him.
And in Phthia, where they arrived, there was Achilles, the demigod and son of King Peleus.


Patroclus, weak and shabby, and Achilles, the son of a goddess who possesses everything.
Despite their differences, the two boys become close friends, and Patroclus secretly develops affection for Achilles.
However, this feeling is soon frustrated by Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis.
Thetis, who dotes on her son, despises all other humans, and has the ability to see where they are and what they are doing, is the worst thing Patroclus could possibly want to avoid.
And when the two boys head to Mount Pelion to learn from the centaur Chiron, it is revealed that Thetis is out of sight of the place and that Achilles feels just as much affection for Patroclus as he does for her.
This is the moment when the passionate love between the two boys begins.

But an impending tragedy always looms before these lovers' eyes.
Achilles is faced with the choice between a short and glorious life and a long and obscure life.
Achilles, seduced by the temptation of glory, joins the attack on Troy, and Patroclus follows him.
Here the author multiplies the dramatic irony present in the story.
The two lovers know that Achilles will not return from Troy and is destined to die there.
Patroclus fears for his life after Achilles' death.
“I got up and tried to calm the growing hysteria by rubbing and hitting her limbs to wake her up.
Without him, every day would be like this.
My chest was pounding so hard that I felt like I was going to scream.
“Without him, every day.” (p. 219) But the reader who reads this already knows that he will die before Achilles.

Miller confesses that he was deeply moved by the character of Patroclus.
Patroclus is portrayed as a gentle being in the Iliad, but gentleness could not be considered the face of a hero in this era of Greece, where only strength was revered and being the best was the most important.
But in this culture of excellence, it was enough for Patroclus that Achilles was the best.
It was enough for him to be his comrade and his shadow.
It is precisely this personality that makes him, who had a minor role in the Iliad, a unique character.
The author says:
“I really thought about it.
“I wanted to give voice to this amazing human being.” Miller went beyond his own wishes and succeeded in giving new voices not only to Patroclus, but also to Achilles, Odysseus, Chiron, and Thetis, making them more three-dimensional characters.

“An expression of a scholar’s ​​respect for the Iliad,
“A wonderfully original work from a truly outstanding new writer.”

Madeline Miller, an author who is being introduced to Korea for the first time, was offered a job producing Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida, a play about the Trojan War, during her final year before receiving her bachelor's degree in Ancient Greek and Latin from Brown University.
As she watched the stage scenes she had created, she discovered that she “wanted not to just read the classic text, but to speak for herself.”
And then, as soon as the play ended, he went into a trance and began writing the story of Patroclus.

The author, who already had extensive knowledge of the Iliad and the Trojan War when he began writing, searched for every passage in the ancient texts where Patroclus appeared.
As a classics student, I thought I should stick to the original myths as much as possible.
However, he said he couldn't help but feel worried.
He wondered if he might be “loving the classics too much and end up desecrating them.”

This attitude of the author is evident in many parts of the novel.
Of course, there are some notable points where the author's imagination is used, such as assuming Patroclus as an exiled 'prince' or having him take lessons from Chiron together with Achilles, but most of the content is done in a way that does not greatly distort the original text.
The novel's basic premise that Achilles and Patroclus are in a homosexual relationship is something that many classical scholars have long suggested.
Thanks to this, this book serves as an excellent introduction to mythology for readers new to mythology, while also providing great enjoyment to readers with a fair amount of mythology knowledge.
This is a significant departure from the 2004 film [Troy], which distorted many mythological facts for fun or convenience.

The sculpture used on the cover of this book is [Achilles Struck by an Arrow], a work by Italian sculptor Innocenzo Fraccaroli from around 1842.
The sculpture follows the later myth that Thetis dipped Achilles in the River Styx to make him immortal, rendering him immortal in all but his heel, and so the arrow is stuck in his heel.
However, in the Iliad, Achilles was not invincible; he was simply born with exceptionally good fighting skills.
Miller says he drew inspiration from the Iliad and that he followed the older classics in his interpretation because he felt this interpretation was more realistic.
Author Ann Patchett's description of this novel as "a scholar's homage to the Iliad" is certainly apt.