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 day, after Greek raids, a priest’s daughter ends up on the dais to be claimed. Achilles is about to claim her, but Agamemnon does first, to the displeasure of the priest Calchas. Less than a month later, the girl’s father—a high priest of Apollo—comes to ransom her with an enormous amount of treasure. He should, technically, be kneeling, but instead he stands tall and claims that his daughter was taken “unlawfully” from their temple. Diomedes and Odysseus nod at his speech, and Menelaus is about to say something, but suddenly Agamemnon harshly declares that there won’t be any ransom. He’s angry that the priest isn’t begging. The priest leaves—later, people say he was crying.
Diomedes, Odysseus, and Menelaus are willing to ransom the girl back to her father—perhaps because it seems like the pious thing to do given the priest’s claim of his daughter being taken unlawfully, and also likely because if they can both be pious and get some treasure that would be even better. But Agamemnon values deference to him more than he values making the moral or pious choice. Agamemnon’s ancestor once tried to punish the gods. What Agamemnon does here is less extreme, but still involves him arrogantly putting himself before the rules of the gods.
Themes
That night, the plague begins. All the Greek army’s mules and dogs die. Machaon, Achilles, and Patroclus burn the bodies. The next morning, men begin to drop, too. Eventually, Patroclus and Achilles give up building individual funeral pyres for each fallen man, and instead burn heaps of bodies. Most of the other kings, except for Agamemnon, begin to help with the burning. No kings die at all, and neither do any women. On the ninth night, Achilles asks his mother about the plague. She confirms that it’s the work of the gods, spurred by the priest whom Agamemnon spurned.
Crossing the gods—and their priests—has consequences. Agamemnon’s arrogance and impious need for total control and obedience has led to this plague against the Greeks. That the plague doesn’t target women implies the way that women are perceived as not being a part of the war. That it targets soldiers and not kings indicates the way that all the powerful people, including the Trojan priest, see the soldiers as pawns or objects.
Themes
On the tenth day, Achilles climbs onto the dais and calls for everyone to gather around. This is the first time that a general—and not Agamemnon—has called a meeting in all these years at Troy. Agamemnon is angry, but he can’t chastise Achilles, since he should have called a meeting about the plague days ago. Achilles says that they need to figure out what they’ve done to make the gods angry, and he summons Calchas, pretending that Agamemnon recommended he do so. Calchas is afraid to speak, worried that his words will make someone upset. He says that it’s Apollo who’s angry, specifically at the treatment of the priest. To appease him, Agamemnon needs to return the priest’s daughter, pray, and sacrifice. Agamemnon clearly didn’t expect this, which Patroclus thinks was stupid of him.
Agamemnon resents Achilles standing on the dais because he sees it as Achilles asserting a leadership role that is rightfully Agamemnon’s, even despite the fact that Achilles is careful to help Agamemnon save face by saying that it is Agamemnon’s idea to figure out the truth behind the plague.Achilles hates lying, but he’s lying now to try to protect Agamemnon and keep the peace. Agamemnon is a bad leader and a politician, unable to see more than a few steps ahead of him at a time and interested only in maintaining strict control. Achilles, meanwhile, is proving himself a pretty good politician, able to sway a crowd and solve problems.
Themes
Achilles insists that Agamemnon send the girl back, but Agamemnon refuses. He says that they should have left Achilles in Scyros, hiding in a skirt. Agamemnon has put up with Achilles’s arrogance for long enough, and he insists that Achilles swear his loyalty. Achilles responds coldly that he’s in Troy of his own volition—and that it is Agamemnon who should kneel.
Agamemnon responds to what he sees as Achilles threat to his control by threatening Achilles honor (by revealing Achilles time on Scyros). Once again, Achilles insists that he is beholden to no one but himself. But he takes it a step further this time and demands that Agamemnon defer to his authority. Previously, Achilles was only trying to prove that he was his own person; now, he seems to be acting out of anger and pride.
Themes
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Seeing an opportunity, Agamemnon draws attention to Achilles’s pride. He says that he’ll punish Achilles for it by taking his war prizes, beginning with Briseis. Agamemnon says that Briseis is a “living embodiment of Achilles’s honor”; taking her is the greatest insult. Achilles’s hand goes for his sword, which Agamemnon doesn’t notice, but he stops himself for some reason. Achilles says that Agamemnon’s words will cause everyone’s deaths: he won’t fight anymore, and the army will lose.
Agamemnon doesn’t see Briseis as a person at all. Instead, she’s representative of Achilles’s honor, and taking her is a way to get back at Achilles. This demonstrates exactly how little agency women have, even women like Briseis, who was given free reign of the Phthian camp. That Achilles stops himself from physically attacking Agamemnon suggests that he has come up with another plan. What that plan is, though, is not yet revealed.
Themes
Patroclus returns to the Phthian camp with Achilles, who rages about Agamemnon and the cowardly crowd. On Phoinix’s orders, Automedon comes to tell Achilles what the other kings are saying: Agamemnon says that Achilles hasn’t even killed Hector, so they don’t need him. He also reveals that Agamemnon’s men are coming for Briseis. Patroclus suggests that they hurry and hide Briseis, but Achilles, who is about to leave to see Thetis, says that they should let them come, since Agamemnon will condemn himself. Patroclus doesn’t understand, but Achilles says that he can’t help Briseis, although he and Patroclus both know what Agamemnon will do to her. Patroclus asks where Achilles’s honor is and then, suddenly, understands what’s going on. Horrified, he goes to warn Briseis.
Agamemnon managed to turn all the kings against Achilles simply by pointing out his pride—apparently the other kings also refuse to see themselves as beneath Achilles. Meanwhile, Patroclus had assumed that just because he would find it morally reprehensible to allow Agamemnon to take Briseis, Achilles would, too. Both he and Patroclus know that Agamemnon plans to sexually assault Briseis, but Achilles is willing to let it happen in service to some plan. Put another way: Patroclus’s primary concern is Briseis as a person; Achilles primary concern is his honor and conflict with Agamemnon, and he, like Agamemnon, us willing to use Briseis as a pawn in that struggle.
Themes
When Briseis sees Patroclus’s expression, she asks if he and Achilles are all right. Ashamed, Patroclus tells her that Apollo caused the plague and that Agamemnon wants to punish Achilles, so they’re sending men to take her. She asks what will happen and while Patroclus can’t answer, she understands. He tries to comfort her, but it’s all lies—they know what’s about to happen. Achilles knows, too. Internally, Patroclus wishes for an apocalypse, a flood. Briseis tells him to leave.
Briseis doesn’t care about Achilles personally, but she cares about Patroclus and so she asks if Achilles and Patroclus are all right. Now Briseis realizes that her freedom within the Phthian camp was just an illusion; she was always a captive of the Greeks above all. Patroclus compared Achilles to a flood after he learned that Achilles killed the family of Hector’s wife. Now he wishes for a flood to wipe out everyone around him: that may be a desire for Achilles to come and protect Briseis by killing Agamemnon and his men, or it may be a more general wish for total destruction of all the Greeks—including Achilles—to wipe away what Patroclus now sees is a corrupt and immoral society.
Themes
