The Song of Achilles

Homer’s Iliad is saturated with similes that invite the audience to make connections between seemingly incongruous elements. For example, in The Iliad’s book seventeen, in which Hector kills Patroclus (as also occurs in The Song of Achilles), Menelaus stands protectively over his body to ensure that the Greeks can return it to Achilles for burial. Menelaus’s protective stance is compared to a mother cow standing over her firstborn calf, reminding the audience of life beyond the battlefield. In Iliad’s book thirteen, Apollo knocks down a Greek wall and is compared to a child using his hands and feet to smash a sandcastle apart, evoking destruction as a form of amusement. This invites the audience to consider the ways gods manipulate humans for their entertainment.

Miller uses similes to similar effect in The Song of Achilles. One example is when a spear passes over Patroclus’s head in battle: “Somehow I am quick enough, and it passes over me, ruffling my hair like a lover’s breath” (317). By comparing the wind, which a passing spear generates, to “a lover’s breath” (317), Miller conflates brutality and tenderness.

Another instance occurs when the god Apollo, by exhaling, guides Paris’s arrow into Achilles’s back. Apollo’s breath is but “a puff of air,” as gentle as if he intended “to send dandelions flying, to push toy boats over water” (336). As in the Homeric text, the simile foregrounds that, for the gods, humans are toys that exist to provide entertainment and diversion. 

Peleus’s nickname for Patroclus—“Skops,” meaning owl in Greek—carries symbolic resonance in the novel. Owls represent wisdom and, in ancient Greek mythology, are associated with Athena, goddess of wisdom, strategy, courage, craft, and civilization. Patroclus embodies these qualities.

He can see beyond the limited perspectives of his culture, especially concerning women and community. While the other men look at the captured women as objects for pleasure, Patroclus worries about their dignity and physical well-being. While Achilles defines a comrade as a fellow Myrmidon, Patroclus looks beyond his place of origin, building connection and community. While the Greek warriors concern themselves with plunder and destruction, Patroclus focuses on healing. At the same time, Patroclus is capable of strategizing effectively and for good ends. He enlists Achilles to claim women otherwise destined for sexual slavery, and he recognizes that Achilles’s refusal to return to battle will have the opposite effect of what he hopes.

Competition is a central feature of the ancient Greek heroic worldview. One way a hero distinguishes himself is by competing and proving himself supreme. Whether through athletic events, public speaking, or combat, Greek men who aspire to be heroes perpetually attempt to one-up each other. As The Song of Achilles explores and questions what it means to be a hero, competition is a recurring motif in the story. Menoitius hosts the Panhellenic games in his kingdom, where Patroclus first notices Achilles. Diomedes and Odysseus demonstrate interpersonal competition through their banter at Scyros. The Greeks compete to be the first to make landfall at Troy.

Agamemnon and Achilles’s conflict can be seen as a product of the Greeks’ inherent need to compete, as both want to be honored as the best or most important figure. This need to be recognized and valued for one’s excellence becomes corrosive, as their escalating conflict demonstrates. Patroclus’s initial resentment and hatred of Achilles also results from an inherent belief that each man is in competition with the other. Achilles is what Patroclus will never be, the best warrior. Achilles has what Patroclus never will, his father’s respect. Only by letting go of this need to compete does Patroclus become free to admire and enjoy Achilles’s gifts. In the process, he achieves something greater and more human than glory: love.