119 pages • 3 hours read
Madeline MillerThe Song of Achilles
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 31-33Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary
Watching the Greeks rout the Trojans, Achilles anticipates Patroclus’s return and Agamemnon kneeling before him but feels curiously numb. He sees the Greeks and Trojans fighting over a body and wonders who it could be.
The Greek kings walk down the beach toward the Myrmidons’ camp, Menelaus carrying a shroud-covered body. Realizing it is Patroclus, Achilles reaches “for his sword to slash his throat” before realizing that he gave it to Patroclus. He screams Patroclus’s name repeatedly, holding his body close. The “last bit of spirit” that remains in Patroclus’s body “can feel the faint beat of [Achilles’s] chest” (321). Briseis runs over and wails over the body. Achilles asks who killed Patroclus, and Menelaus tells him it was Hector. Achilles starts to leave, but Odysseus stops him, telling him, “Tomorrow” (321).
Weeping and cradling Patroclus’s body, Achilles refuses to eat or sleep. Thetis appears, tells him that Patroclus “did it to himself” (322), and tries to lead Achilles away from the body, but he tells her not to touch him. He tells her that he will kill Hector. She points out that he has no armor. He says that he does not need it. She vows to bring him new armor.
Agamemnon visits Achilles’s tent and blames the gods for causing them to quarrel. He declares them allies again. Achilles thinks only of killing Hector. He tells Agamemnon that he wishes Patroclus had let them all die. Later, when he finds Briseis washing Patroclus’s body, he screams at her to leave. She refuses, telling Achilles that he caused Patroclus’s death, that Patroclus was worth ten of Achilles, and that he never deserved Patroclus. She tells him that she hopes Hector kills him. Achilles hopes for the same.
Thetis returns at dawn with new armor. Achilles immediately sets out alone to find Hector, screaming the Trojan prince’s name. Hector runs, knowing that if he is caught, he will die. He lunges into the Scamander river. The river god rises out of the water to fight Achilles for Hector, but after a lengthy battle, Achilles strikes Scamander and forces him to retreat. Achilles resumes his hunt for Hector. In a sacred grove, Hector finally stops running. He faces Achilles and asks him to return his body to his family after his death. Achilles replies that “lions and men” do not strike bargains, then kills him (328).
Achilles returns to his camp with Hector’s body, which he has dragged behind him in the dirt. Thetis again appears to order Achilles to return Hector’s body, but Achilles refuses. When he sleeps, he dreams of Patroclus, who asks him to burn and bury his body. The next morning, Achilles drags Hector’s body around Troy’s walls for everyone in the city to see, repeating the act in the afternoon and evening. Thetis tells him that he has gone too far and angered Apollo. Achilles does not care. He blames Thetis for Patroclus’s death, telling her that Patroclus would still be alive if she had not gone to Zeus. She tells him that Pyrrhus, at the age of 12, is “more of a man” than Achilles. She will bring him to Troy, and through him the city will fall, according to the Fates. Achilles is aghast that she would bring his son to this place. She replies that Pyrrhus is the next “Aristos Achaion” (331). She is disgusted that Achilles would destroy everything she has done to ensure his legacy because of Patroclus. Her final words to Achilles are that she is glad Patroclus is dead.
Chapter 32 Summary
Late in the night, Priam visits Achilles to ask for his son Hector’s body. He wishes to bury it and thus ensure that Hector’s soul can rest. He tells Achilles that “the grace of the gods” (333) guided him, that he is sorry for the loss of his beloved companion, and that his son was responsible for that loss. Even when men are enemies, though, they must help each other through their grief. He understands that Achilles could choose to kill him, but it is worth the risk to ensure “peace for the dead” (334). He reminds Achilles that those who are left behind know no peace. Achilles gives Hector’s body to Priam and, the following day, carries Patroclus’s body to the pyre.
After he collects Patroclus’s ashes and places them in the finest golden urn, he instructs the Greeks to put his own ashes in the same urn after he is dead and bury him and Patroclus together. Achilles returns to battle, easily but wearily killing the Trojan allies who step in for the fallen Hector and Sarpedon. These include Aethiopian king Memnon, Amazon leader Penthesilea, and Priam’s youngest son, Troilus, the one who the Trojans wanted to survive.
On the walls of Troy, Paris stands with the god Apollo. Paris nocks an arrow, and Apollo guides it into Achilles’s back. As he falls stricken to the earth, Achilles smiles.
Chapter 33 Summary
Sea nymphs prepare Achilles’s body for the pyre. After he is burned, Odysseus asks Thetis if she will allow Achilles ashes to be collected and mingled with Patroclus’s, as Achilles willed. She tells Odysseus to do as he pleases, and he honors Achilles’s request.
The Greek kings meet to decide where to erect a tomb for Patroclus and Achilles but are interrupted by the arrival of Pyrrhus, Achilles’s beautiful, haughty 12-year-old son. Agamemnon questions his readiness, and Pyrrhus shares that the Greeks cannot win the war without him. The Fates have decreed it. Menelaus responds diplomatically that they are happy to have him and talk returns to the placement of the tomb. Pyrrhus objects to Patroclus being included, saying it would dishonor his father’s fame to include his “slave” (341) in the monument. The monument bears only Achilles’s name, leaving Patroclus’s soul to wander the earth.
Pyrrhus battles under Scyros’ banners, but he demands the Myrmidons’ loyalty as his “inheritance and birthright” (341). Seeing Briseis, Pyrrhus calls her the reason Achilles refused to fight. Later, he has her brought to his tent. He tells her that she must have been a good bed-slave if his father was willing to break with the army over her. She denies having been Achilles’s bed-slave and subtly alludes to Patroclus and Achilles’s relationship. He accuses her of lying and calls her to him. She tries to stab him but does not push the blade hard enough. Pyrrhus smacks her, and she runs out of the tent and into the sea. Pyrrhus sends a spear flying into her back, and she sinks dead under the waves.
Troy falls, and Pyrrhus demands a final sacrifice for Achilles. Calchas brings a white heifer to Achilles’s tomb, but Pyrrhus finds this insufficient honor for his father. He grabs the young Trojan princess Polyxena and slashes her throat, declaring her a fitting sacrifice. He also murders Andromache and Hector’s infant son by dashing his head against Troy’s stone walls, horrifying even Agamemnon.
The night before the Greeks depart, Patroclus visits Odysseus in his dreams. He charges him with securing peace for Patroclus’s soul by ensuring that his name is written on the monument with Achilles’s. That same night, Odysseus visits Pyrrhus and urges him to honor his father’s wishes by including Patroclus’s name on Achilles’s monument, but Pyrrhus refuses. The following day, the Greeks sail away and leave Patroclus’s soul to wander alone where his ashes are buried.
Many visit Achilles’s grave, including, eventually, Thetis. Seeing her fills Patroclus with hatred. She created Pyrrhus then favored him above Achilles. His soul communes with her, telling her that Achilles should be remembered not only for the men he killed but for his moments of grace (returning Hector’s body, saving the captured women) and artistry (musical skill with the lyre and his voice). Patroclus asks Thetis why she is not with Pyrrhus, and she admits that he is dead, killed by Agamemnon’s son for ravishing his bride.
Thetis asks Patroclus to share memories of Achilles. He considers refusing, but his desire to resurrect Achilles through memory is stronger than his hatred of Thetis. He conjures Achilles through his stories, and Thetis listens. After he has told her everything he can remember, she laments that she could not make Achilles a god. Patroclus responds, “But you made him” (351). For a long time, Thetis is quiet. She reveals that she has etched Patroclus’s name on the monument. She tells him to go, adding, “He waits for you” (352). Patroclus and Achilles’s shades reunite in a flood of light.
Chapters 31-33 Analysis
Achilles seeks vengeance against Hector, fulfilling the final piece of the prophecy and ensuring both his death and Troy’s fall. The significance of the title is revealed in the final chapter of the book.
Achilles has no desire to survive Patroclus. After mourning over Patroclus’s body, Achilles hunts down and kills Hector, then continues to fight until Apollo guides Paris to kill him. Ironically, losing Patroclus reinforces Achilles’s humanity. His grief for his lover is stronger than his desire for immortality, whether achieved literally or through legend. When Achilles sets out to find Hector, he is not thinking about the prophecy that states killing Hector will ensure his glorification. He thinks only of avenging his lover’s death and bringing on his own death so that he can reunite with Patroclus.
Thetis, now consumed by visions of glory for her son, is unable to understand and respect his grief. His emotional displays are unseemly for a god, and she turns her gaze away from Achilles. She focuses instead on his son, Pyrrhus, who will replace his father as Aristos Achaion. A new prophecy that Pyrrhus will ensure Troy’s fall captures her attention, and she brings him to the Greek camp.
Prior to his death, Achilles instructs the Greek leaders to bury his ashes with Patroclus’s, ensuring that their shades would be united in the afterlife. Though the Greek leaders attempt to comply, Pyrrhus refuses their request. Raised by the goddess Thetis, Pyrrhus lacks humanity. His brutality is total, causing even Agamemnon to blanch. His inhumanity demonstrates the price of immortality. For gods, humans are pawns and playthings to be manipulated for amusement and personal gain. Pyrrhus wants maximum honor for Achilles because of how it reflects on Pyrrhus himself, and this is ultimately why he refuses to honor his father’s wishes.
Odysseus attempts to convince Pyrrhus to change his mind by telling him that “fame is a strange thing” (347). While “some men gain glory after they die,” others fade from memory, and ‘[w]hat is admired in one generation is abhorred in another” (347). In other words, what is considered heroic by one civilization may be viewed as barbaric by another. This is a direct commentary on how contemporary culture repudiates what ancient civilizations celebrated. Odysseus continues, “We cannot say who will survive the holocaust of memory. Who knows? […] Perhaps one day even I will be famous. Perhaps more famous than you” (347). Readers versed in the Homeric texts will recognize this as a reference to The Odyssey, Homer’s epic poem about Odysseus’s quest to return home after Troy’s fall. Significantly, no such epic about Pyrrhus survives.
In the novel’s final section, Thetis returns to Achilles’s tomb longing to hear Patroclus’s personal memories of her son. That she seeks these private recollections rather than epic poems celebrating Achilles’s military achievements reveals the meaning of the novel’s title. The song of Achilles told by his lover celebrates his humanity, both his gifts and his flaws. It is the two together that made Achilles who and what he was. Patroclus’s “song” honors his lover’s moments of grace as well as his flaws and his military, athletic, and artistic skills. It celebrates the man rather than the ideal.
Related Titles
By Madeline Miller
