Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Song of Achilles, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Honor, Pride, and Legacy
Fate, Belief, and Control
Gender, Power, and Agency
Love, Violence, and Redemption
Selfhood and Responsibility
Summary
Analysis
One spring day when the boys are fifteen, Patroclus watches Achilles on the beach. There are no mirrors on Pelion, so Patroclus measures his own body through the changes in his friend’s. He tells Achilles that he looks older and asks if he himself does, too. Using his hand, Achilles traces the parts of Patroclus’s body that seem changed: wider collar, hair on his chest. Patroclus sharply stops him. Later, Achilles offhandedly tells Patroclus that he wouldn’t be “displeased” with how he looks now.
The lack of mirrors connects with the way that Chiron’s camp discourages self-importance. Meanwhile, Achilles and Patroclus continue to be sexually and romantically interested in one another, though neither seem willing to act on that interest at this time.
Themes
Patroclus knows that when Achilles is sixteen, his father will arrange a marriage for him, and Patroclus could also take a wife, if he wanted. He tries to imagine sex with women, something other boys have discussed, but he can’t—when he thinks about it, his mind turns into a “slippery fish.” Instead, he thinks of Achilles’s neck, bent over a lyre, and his smell. Each time his thoughts turn in this direction, he remembers Thetis and the disastrous first kiss, but it’s hard to control it; he often leaves the cave in the morning to masturbate, and he worries that Achilles knows.
While Patroclus is focused on how Achilles having an arranged marriage would affect his own relationship with Achilles, and about his own sexuality in connection with his own possible marriage, it is worth again noting the ways that the novel has made clear how much worse arranged marriages typically are for the women involved than the men. As for Patroclus’s sexuality, it’s not clear if he is completely uninterested in women, or just so fixated on Achilles that he’s uninterested in anyone else, of any sex. Notably, Patroclus pictures Achilles with a lyre when he fantasizes about him, again hinting at his determination to focus only on Achilles innocence and not his potential for violence.
Themes
On Achilles’s sixteenth birthday, Patroclus secretly picks figs for him. Achilles doesn’t know that figs grow on Pelion. Patroclus also carves a small sculpture, featuring Achilles playing the lyre. The two then eagerly eat the figs, while Achilles opens his present from Peleus: a purple cloak, signifying his royal status, which pleases Achilles. Patroclus thinks the color suits him. Chiron gives him a hiking staff, but Achilles is particularly overjoyed by the small statue that Patroclus made.
Achilles and Patroclus often ate figs together in Phthia, so this is a call back to childhood.. The statue once again implies that above anything else, Patroclus sees (or wants to see) Achilles as a young, innocent boy playing the lyre. When Achilles last received a cloak from Peleus, he didn’t care about it—now, he embraces the reminder of his royal status. This suggests that he may be slowly shedding that childlike innocence.
Themes
One night not long after, the three sit by the fire outside with Achilles playing the lyre. Asking if Chiron is tired, Achilles excuses himself and Patroclus, and they go to the cave alone. Achilles blurts out that Thetis can’t see them on Pelion; he’d asked if she could, and though she seemed displeased by the question, she said no. Patroclus, newly hopeful and terrified, asks if Achilles liked her answer. Achilles says that he did. The two lie side-by-side and silent on the bed.
Achilles seems to have decided to finally act on his feelings for Patroclus. Achilles’s blurting out that Thetis can’t see them indicates his nervousness—he’s in better control of his fighting than he is of this awkward seduction.
Themes
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Thinking that Achilles is asleep, Patroclus turns to look at him, only to find that Achilles is already looking back—Patroclus never hears him when he moves, since he’s capable of great stillness. The two kiss and Patroclus takes Achilles in his hand; Achilles strokes him in turn. Afterwards, they look at each other but don’t speak.
As usual, this love scene is undercut with the reminder that Achilles is an innately incredible fighter—his stillness isn’t normal or human. Achilles capacity as a warrior is always a part of his physical interactions with Patroclus, even if Patroclus himself doesn’t recognize it.
Themes
Patroclus is terrified that Achilles regrets what they’ve done, but Achilles says, haltingly, that he didn’t think they’d ever do that. Patroclus asks if he’s sorry. Achilles isn’t, and neither is Patroclus. Patroclus realizes, suddenly, that he’ll never leave Achilles—it’ll be exactly like this for as long as Achilles will let him stick around. He can’t find the right words for that enormous truth, but Achilles seems to sense it anyway. He grabs Patroclus’s hand, saying only his name. Patroclus notes that of the two of them, Achilles has always been more skilled with words.
Every marriage shown in the novel has been about power or ownership, in which a man seeks or wins a woman in order to get something, whether wealth or fame and glory. But this moment shows something else: a commitment based on love; a commitment in which Patroclus binds himself to whatever Achilles’s fate turns out to be.
Themes
The next morning, Patroclus worries that Achilles will change his mind, but he doesn’t. Now, Patroclus can openly stare at him, learning his body. The two are like “gods at the dawning of the world,” he says, their joy blinding them to everything but each other. They sometimes worry that Chiron may have noticed a change and will be angry about it, but Achilles says that even if he was angry, it wouldn’t stop them. Even if Chiron told Peleus—the worst-case scenario—Peleus couldn’t do anything about it. Patroclus worries that, in that hypothetical, Thetis would kill him, but he doesn’t say so. When Achilles asks if Patroclus would care if the adults were angry, Patroclus lies and says no. It doesn’t matter anyway; he’d never let their disapproval keep him from Achilles.
Even though Patroclus has basically declared undying love for Achilles, he’s still an insecure teenager, so of course he’s worried Achilles will regret what they’ve done. At the same time, this new, revealed love makes Patroclus feel powerful, like a “god”—yet this moment is ironic and almost bleak, since they aren’t gods and don’t control their fate. Achilles has never much cared what other people think. The less powerful or self-assured Patroclus always has cared, and so his refusal to be affected by how others think of him suggests the depth of his feelings for Achilles. It also suggests that he learned the lesson Chiron was trying to teach him: there are things besides honor worth fighting for.
Themes
Achilles asks Patroclus to name a single hero who was happy. Patroclus, thinking of the mad Heracles, can’t think of anyone. Achilles vows that because of Patroclus, he’ll be the first, and he asks Patroclus to swear they’ll make it happen together. Satisfied, Achilles says he “could eat the world raw.”
Love has also made Achilles feel that he can control his own fate, and assure his own happiness. But he clearly wasn’t listening to Heracles’s story very carefully. The gods presumably forced Heracles to kill his wife and kids because Heracles loved them. Heracles’s love for his family caused his unhappiness. Achilles comment that he wants to eat the world raw is an interesting one, because it’s a pretty violent way of expressing love.
Themes
Suddenly, they hear a ragged trumpet sound; Achilles pulls a knife and waits. A voice calls for him from a distance. Patroclus realizes it must be a messenger from the palace, since no one else would know they’re here. As man steps into the clearing, Achilles lowers his knife but holds it tightly. The messenger tells Achilles that there’s urgent business in Phthia; messengers from Mycenae have arrived with news, and Peleus wants Achilles to be there. As the two return to the cave, they speculate about the news. Mycenae is Agamemnon’s kingdom and has the greatest army in Greece.
Once again, Achilles quickly transitions from an innocent lover to a warrior. Meanwhile, for anyone familiar with the story of The Iliad, this moment is one of fate or destiny intervening at just the moment when Achilles and Patroclus felt that they had taken control of their lives. Agamemnon was one of Helen’s suitors, and his brother, Menelaus, was the man Helen chose as her husband. And, in The Iliad, Agamemnon was the leader of the Greek armies during the Trojan war—the war in which Achilles fate and destiny came to pass.
Themes
Achilles tells Chiron that he’s been summoned home but will return soon. Patroclus wonders whether Chiron will be lonely without them—he knows that Chiron dislikes other centaurs because he thinks they’re “barbaric.” Achilles and Patroclus pack their few possessions—including the statue that Patroclus made for Achilles—and Achilles embraces Chiron. Chiron warns him that he should consider his earlier question, whether or not he’ll fight in someone else’s army. Patroclus is disturbed by the implication. Chiron then tells Patroclus that he doesn’t give up on things so easily anymore. Achilles assures him again that they’ll be back soon, but Patroclus can’t see Chiron’s expression in the dark. They ride away, and though Patroclus tries to look back at Chiron’s camp, he looks too late to be able to see anything.
Achilles’s promise to return to Chiron indicates that he still thinks he is control of his own fate. That Patroclus looks to see Chiron’s expression at Achilles statement—and can’t see it—implies that Patroclus senses that Achilles may be wrong, and that Achilles will in fact end up being wrong. Chiron’s comment to Achilles, however, does still offer a path to some measure control: Achilles may be destined to be a warrior, but he can choose who he fights for. Chiron’s final comment to Patroclus hints that he might have known about the boys’ relationship all along—after all, Achilles is what Patroclus became willing to fight for when he arrived on Pelion. The fact that Patroclus can’t look back on Pelion again suggests that a chapter of the boys’ lives is permanently closed.
Themes
