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
That night, Patroclus notices that the air is heavy and quiet—there’s no wind. If this continues, he realizes, the Greeks won’t be able to set sail for Troy. The next few days are the same; the army is marooned and Agamemnon takes no action. Achilles speaks to Thetis, who says the gods are causing the lack of wind. He tells an annoyed Agamemnon this information, but Agamemnon continues to do nothing for a month even as the weather remains too still. Finally, Agamemnon speaks to the chief priest, a man named Calchas. Calchas says that the army offended Artemis somehow, and they need to make a sacrifice to the goddess in order for the winds to return.
The fact that Artemis can and will control the winds and stop a whole army in its tracks because she is offended makes plain the prodigious power of the gods, and, by extension, fate. Agamemnon’s refusal to talk with the priest for a month after getting the information from Achilles implies that Agamemnon, in response to Achilles’s refusal to bow down to him, won’t show any deference to Achilles either.
Themes
Agamemnon asks that his daughter, Iphigenia, be brought to Aulis to help with the ritual—she’s a priestess of Artemis. Agamemnon then summons Achilles to offer his daughter’s hand in marriage to him, a great honor. Odysseus encourages the match, even knowing that Achilles is already married. Patroclus and Achilles realize that Odysseus wants them to stay silent about that. Patroclus knows that Achilles will say no to the marriage if he wants to, but it’s just one night, and it will help his status with Agamemnon. Though he’s jealous, Patroclus nods at Achilles, who agrees to the match.
Iphigenia here is presented as a uniquely strong woman, necessary for a ritual to achieve what none of the powerful men in the Greek army can. Yet the sudden honor bestowed by Agamemnon on Achilles after earlier ignoring him as a seemingly hated rival, along with the fact that Odysseus always seems to have an ulterior motive, seem suspicious. This time, Achilles and Patroclus agree to Achilles getting married together—they are both involved in the project of increasing Achilles prestige and power.
Themes
A few days later, an excited Iphigenia arrives. The marketplace has been set up for the wedding—Agamemnon, Odysseus, Diomedes, Calchas, and Achilles wait on a dais. Iphigenia is barely fourteen; when she hugs her father, she whispers something that makes him laugh, and his grip tightens. She then smiles at Achilles. He moves forward, and she moves toward him but stumbles… no, she’s not falling. Diomedes is dragging her backward toward her father. Agamemnon grabs a knife and slits her throat, holding her down. The goddess has been appeased, he says. The crowd is horrified—human sacrifice is an abomination, and that was his daughter. But suddenly, they feel the wind. Patroclus grabs a shell-shocked Achilles and brings him back to their tent. Burying his face in his bloody hands, Achilles says that he had the power to stop them.
Now the true motives are revealed. The wedding to Achilles was a ruse to get Iphigenia to come, and also another way for Agamemnon to show Achilles who is in control. Iphigenia did have power—but it was a purely passive power, a power inherent in being nothing more than an object, of being sacrificed for something her own father wanted more than he wanted her—war and power. Odysseus obviously also knew this plan, and once again manipulated Achilles. Achilles comment that he could have stopped what happened places him in contrast to Agamemnon: he values the life of this girl he did not know more than getting to the war to win his honor and legacy .
Themes
Agamemnon calls the entire crowd back, and explains what happened: Artemis was displeased by the upcoming slaughter in Troy and demanded they sacrifice a virgin priestess, preferably his daughter. He says that Iphigenia had agreed to be sacrificed for the benefit of the Greeks. Most of the men watching weren’t near enough to see her surprise and panic, and they believe him. Later, Patroclus comforts Achilles in their tent; it’s the first human death he’s ever seen.
Agamemnon uses lies to maintain control. Yet it is worth noting that even in the lie Agamemnon reveals that Artemis preferred the sacrifice of Iphigenia but would have accepted another virgin priestess. Agamemnon ensured his success in getting to the war by making the choice to kill his own daughter. Achilles, destined to be the greatest soldier, has never before seen human death. Achilles, even as he goes to seek his warrior destiny is an innocent. Achilles is supposed to be the inhuman weapon, but right now he seems more human than every Greek general.
Themes
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While Achilles is asleep, Patroclus enters Odysseus’s tent. Patroclus blames him for Iphigenia’s murder, because he could have stopped it. He would have if his wife were the one in danger. Odysseus admits that he wouldn’t have agreed to it in that case—but maybe that’s why Agamemnon is a strong king. Patroclus is especially angry about the sham “marriage” to Achilles, but Odysseus comments the wedding was the only way Iphigenia’s mother would agree to send her.
Odysseus here equates kingly strength with the ability to act cold-bloodedly in pursuit of power, which is a pretty good summation of the Greek honor code. That Odysseus himself would not act as Agamemnon did reveals he doesn’t entirely subscribe to Agamemnon’s methods, though one might also argue that Odysseus is willing to use Agamemnon to achieve his own goals. Odysseus always seems to be in control. Meanwhile, the ruse to bring Iphigenia to Aulis involved not just tricking Achille’s and Agamemnon’s daughter, but also his wife. (It’s worth noting that Agamemnon’s actions in the broader world of Greek myth have consequences, as described in Aeschylus’s play Agamemnon.)
Themes
Patroclus says they dishonored Achilles, tainted him. But Odysseus dismisses this, saying that everyone has forgotten that Achilles was part of it. Achilles has a “tender heart,” Odysseus says—and instructs Patroclus to tell Achilles that they placed Diomedes on purpose so that Achilles would witness the sacrifice too late. He gives Patroclus some advice: tell Achilles to toughen up. He’s a weapon, and though “you can use a spear as a walking stick,” it’s still innately deadly. He doesn’t say this to be cruel. Patroclus tells him he’s wrong and runs away.
Odysseus here makes clear that Achilles couldn’t have stopped the sacrifice—they had planned it out to thwart him. This both makes Achilles innocent, but shows how these other kings, with their plans, are in control despite Achilles skill at battle. Odysseus then also advises that Achilles should embrace what he is—a weapon. But again, this characterization still places Achilles in the role of being a tool in the hands of others. Patroclus, of course, wants Achilles to be neither of those things.
Themes
