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!
