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Chapter 12
Themes
and Colors
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
Over the next few days, Patroclus and Achilles often sneak outside where Achilles can run and jump. Otherwise, living as a woman, he’s confined. At night, they eat awkward dinners with Lycomedes and Deidameia, an attempt to maintain the cover story of Patroclus and Achilles’s marriage. Achilles is indifferent to Deidameia, which hurts her. She assumes that Patroclus is mocking her, but really he feels sorry—he’s almost asked Achilles to be kinder to her many times, but Achilles lacks interest, not kindness.
The restrictions placed on women are made obvious by the ways that Achilles’s disguise as a woman is limits what he can do. Yet it is noteworthy that experiencing these limitations doesn’t make him any more sympathetic to Deidameia. Patroclus is once again portrayed as the more empathetic person, here, though he doesn’t actually every tell Achilles to be more kind. Patroclus is letting Achilles off the hook pretty easily, something he does often.
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Achilles starts waking up early to practice with his spears before returning to “womanhood.” One morning, a guard summons Patroclus on Deidameia’s behalf. He passes through the women’s quarters, which have no windows—Patroclus can’t imagine living there for two whole months like Achilles did. Deidameia is waiting for Patroclus in her bedchamber, and he realizes that she planned this, knowing Achilles would be gone.
Achilles is able to slip in and out of “womanhood” relatively easily. Meanwhile, Patroclus is shocked by how confined Achilles was during his initial period in the women’s quarters, but Achilles was only ever there temporarily. The women who live there are permanently confined, something Patroclus doesn’t dwell on. Meanwhile, Deidameia might be able to summon Patroclus to her chambers, but she has to maneuver around Achilles’s schedule to do so, again proving that her power is limited.
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Deidameia watches Patroclus carefully, ordering him not to speak. He’s not handsome, she says—he’s even hideous. She asks what he thinks of her assessment and he replies she told him to be silent, so she slaps him. The slap shocks him, as boys are never slapped, except occasionally by their fathers; Patroclus’s father often slapped him. She clearly wants him to hit back, and when she sees he won’t, she triumphantly calls him a coward. She can’t understand why Achilles would—but she can’t finish the thought, and she begins to cry, trying to hide it. She can’t fool Patroclus, who has done the same thing himself.
Deidameia tells Patroclus that she hates him, but he pities her, remembering how awful indifference can be. Hands over her face, she tells him that she’s leaving tomorrow to begin her confinement; a visible pregnancy would be shameful. Patroclus imagines the confinement—small house, no dances—and tells her he’s sorry. She asks why Achilles doesn’t notice her. It’s a childish question, but Patroclus says he doesn’t know. She knows—Patroclus is the reason. He says he should leave, but she threatens to tell the guards he attacked her. Patroclus knows that even if she did, there’s nothing they could do. Wanting to make Patroclus jealous, Deidameia reveals that she and Achilles had sex twice. Patroclus says he already knew this; she can’t hurt him.
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Literary Devices
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Deidameia begins crying again, but she asks Patroclus not to leave. He steps toward her, and she falls into his arms, sobbing. Achilles and his brightness feel far away in this sad room. Eventually, she starts stroking his back and he realizes what she wants. After some protests, he follows her into her room. Achilles had told him about sex with Deidameia, saying that it was quick and that he’d missed Patroclus. Deidameia asks if Patroclus thinks she’s beautiful, and Patroclus says yes, truthfully. As he pleasures her, her expression disturbs him: determination, not enjoyment. He wants to stop, but he knows that if he did, he’d hurt her more.
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Patroclus feels resistance when he tries to enter Deidameia, and they’re both relieved when he finally does. He’s aroused, but drowsily; it’s different than it is with Achilles. His indifference hurts her, so he moves faster, which makes her triumphant. Afterward, when it’s over, he tries to hold her, wanting to offer her something, but she draws away warily. He doesn’t know what she wanted, only that he hasn’t given it to her. She asks him to tell Achilles goodbye. When he sees Achilles again, he’s relieved, and he can almost convince himself that it was a vivid dream. But that would be a lie.
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