TFBT: The Song of Achilles

 

I met a woman on a jet somewhere during the last three weeks. She told me that Achilles was gay. I said, I don’t think so thinking of,

“But Achilles slept in an inner room, and beside him [665] the daughter of Phorbas lovely Diomede, whom he had carried off from Lesbos. Patroklos lay on the other side of the room, and with him fair-waisted Iphis whom radiant Achilles had given him when he took Skyros the city of Enyeus.” Iliad 9

She was real excited about a book her book club had picked out; “The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller. She was sure that Achilles had a lover named…

“Patroclus” I suggested.

 She talked about his mother named…

“Thetis.” I suggested. I filled in a few more items she couldn’t recall.

She asked how I knew so much and I explained about HeroesX. She couldn’t believe I had been studying The Iliad since the 4th grade. Nor could she believe we had a long conversation without talking politics. So I agreed to read her book and correspond with her. I will let you know how often I am yelling at the pages.

 So, I was all set to hate this book. Rather I am enjoying the authoress’ attempt to flesh out the tales we only know the outlines of. 

What I don’t enjoy is the jarring anachronisms; “changeling” a concept unknown in Greek myth; making “a sign against evil” again not a classical concept; a ”favor-currying noble”- I doubt if any bronze age warriors were brushing French centaurs; rabbit-warrens; the phrase “a stone in my shoe” used by someone several centuries before shoes; same with the phrase “a trick of low mummers”; and coins.  Was yew wood around in Ancient Greece?

Were Philoctetes and Heracles best friends? Miller seems ignorant of the fact that Patroclus and Achilles were related. Odysseus’ scar is way bigger than according to Homer.

Proteus was NOT Thetis’ father. Her father was Nereus and the difference is sort of a big thing.  Nor did Thetis have a reputation for hating mortals or cruelity. 

A goat was not sacrificed during the Oath of Tyndareus; 

Pausanias [3.20.9] Further on is what is called the Tomb of Horse. For Tyndareus, having sacrificed a horse here, administered an oath to the suitors of Helen, making them stand upon the pieces of the horse. The oath was to defend Helen and him who might be chosen to marry her if ever they should be wronged. When he had sworn the suitors he buried the horse here. 

Patroclus was too young to swear an oath according to the rules of that society. 

I like the description of Peleus as “excelling all his peers in piety”.  I like the quote “This was more of the gods than I had ever seen in my life.” And a voice like the “grinding of rocks in the surf.”

The authoress over-eroticizes Ancient Greek boyhood as many other modern authors do. Homer makes no mention of such behavior. In addition, as a former boy and father of a couple, I can say that Miller’s depiction of little boys’ thought processes does not ring true.  That said, Patroclus saying at 13 years old (page 59) “I did not like the sprawling length of my new limbs.” does sound very familiar to concerns I had in my youth. By page 62, the book was getting a little too gay for my taste; teenage boys making out on the beach is not something I needed to see in my minds-eye.  I don’t think I am the demographic the authoress is trying to reach.

As aside I should mention that “homosexuality” for the Ancient Greeks meant something totally different than what we think it is.  For them homosexuality was between a mature man and a boy.  I researched homosexuality among the Olympian gods once, ends up Ares, Hephaestus and Hades were the only strictly heterosexual gods on Olympus. The goddesses Athena, Artemis and Hestia always remained virgins. Which might explain the behavior of the other Olympian males!