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
Patroclus watches Agamemnon’s messengers approach. He wishes they’d die and imagines Achilles snapping their necks. However, Achilles acts like a martyr who can’t do anything to stop them, and Patroclus clenches his teeth. When Patroclus quietly apologizes to Briseis, she doesn’t say that it’s all right, but she kisses him briefly. She turns back to look at Patroclus and Achilles, hopeful, and Patroclus watches Achilles, but Achilles doesn’t look up.
Earlier in the novel Achilles killed a poisonous snake to protect Patroclus. Patroclus is wishing for that same kind of act from Achilles now: he wants Achilles to use his skill at killing to protect others. Yet Achilles offers no such protection. This scene also shows how much Achilles has changed since the start of the novel. He always hated deceit and trickery, but he now puts on a show of martyrdom for Agamemnon’s guards, even though he’d been furiously angry only moments before. He seems to have a plan in place, and rather than protecting others he is protecting his honor.
Themes
Patroclus asks how Achilles can let Briseis go. His face blank, Achilles goes to speak with Thetis. Patroclus thinks that he doesn’t know Achilles anymore, and he won’t forgive him; he imagines breaking Achilles’s lyre or stabbing himself, just to make Achilles grieve. Achilles expects Patroclus to sit idly and wait for him, since Patroclus has nothing to offer Agamemnon in exchange for Briseis’s freedom. Suddenly, Patroclus remembers Chiron saying that if a wolf hunts you, you have to offer it something better. He grabs a knife and heads to Agamemnon’s tent.
Patroclus also recognizes how much Achilles has changed. His desire to destroy Achilles lyre is also a recognition that Achilles has now lost the innocence that the lyre represents, and which Patroclus loved. It is worth noting, though, that Achilles acts monstrously every day and has shared each sin with Patroclus. He told Patroclus how he killed Hector’s wife’s family. Patroclus has been able to excuse or justify or ignore those actions throughout the novel because he loves Achilles and doesn’t know Achilles’s victims. Things different now because Patroclus loves Briseis, too. Patroclus is also beginning to understand that he’s the only person Achilles really cares about. If he wanted to hurt Achilles, he’d have to hurt himself, which is the only thing that could make Achilles “grieve.” Patroclus and Achilles love is now even more closely intertwined with violence.
Themes
Patroclus sees Briseis immediately; she’s in the corner with her hands tied. Agamemnon is triumphant at Patroclus’s appearance, thinking that he’ll beg or ask for mercy on Achilles’s behalf or get pointlessly angry. Instead, Patroclus slices his wrist, swearing on his blood that he’s about to speak the truth. He says: Agamemnon is in danger, and Achilles doesn’t know that Patroclus is here. Patroclus explains that Achilles knows what Agamemnon wants to do to Briseis. According to Patroclus, Achilles let Agamemnon take her because if Agamemnon violates her, his army will despise him, since she belongs to Achilles. Violating her would violate Achilles, so Achilles could kill Agamemnon for it—or the men will kill Agamemnon themselves.
This scene reveals Achilles’s full plan for the first time: he wanted to allow Agamemnon to act dishonorably so that he had an honorable reason to kill him. To do this, he was willing to use Briseis, and expose her to rape and death, all to protect his honor and get the upper hand in the struggle for pride, power, and control with Agamemnon. This plan makes it as clear as possible that Greek honor has very little do with morality.
Themes
Shocked, Agamemnon says that his counselors—Odysseus and Diomedes—didn’t mention this. Patroclus replies that maybe they want Agamemnon to die so that Menelaus will rule with them by his side. Agamemnon understands how important this information is and that Patroclus is betraying Achilles to convey it, which delights him. Nothing will hurt Achilles more. Finally, Agamemnon says that he’ll release Briseis if Achilles kneels. Patroclus frees her wrists and tells Agamemnon to be kind to her.
Patroclus is just speculating about Odysseus and Diomedes here, but his speculation is plausible—that Odysseus and Diomedes are fed up with Agamemnon’s leadership and want to run the army themselves. Odysseus has never had a problem with allowing innocent people to be hurt for a greater good—he let Agamemnon murder Iphigenia, after all. The only difference between Odysseus and Achilles is that Odysseus never claimed to be an honorable person or to care very much about his honor. Both men are capable of justifying horrible things, but Achilles believes he’s acting honorably, while Odysseus seems to accept his moral bankruptcy. Agamemnon is obviously not a very good politician, since he didn’t see any of this coming. However, he’s smart enough to know that Patroclus has given him valuable information and that Patroclus’s betrayal will hurt Achilles more than Briseis’s rape. Patroclus, meanwhile, is willing to betray Achilles in this way in order to protect Briseis, just as he wished Achilles earlier would have killed to protect her.
Themes
Get the entire The Song of Achilles LitChart as a printable PDF.
Achilles is waiting for Patroclus in the tent, and when Patroclus enters he bandages Patroclus’s wound. When Patroclus reveals what happened, Achilles is furious. He accuses Patroclus of trading Briseis for Achilles’s honor, but Patroclus responds that Achilles’s plan was never honorable. Achilles interprets this as Patroclus choosing Briseis over him, but Patroclus gently says that isn’t the case: he chose her over Achilles’s pride. Achilles becomes sorrowful, but insists that his reputation is the only thing he has; he’ll be dead soon, as Patroclus knows. But Patroclus responds that he wants Achilles’s memory to reflect him, not his worst intentions. Weary, Achilles says that Patroclus is a better person than he is. Patroclus responds that Achilles only left himself temporarily, but Achilles says Patroclus doesn’t know everything he’s done.
It's ironic that Achilles is the one to bandage Patroclus’s wound when he’s the reason that wound exists at all, literally and figuratively—Patroclus is hurt both emotionally and physically because of Achilles. It does show, though, that Achilles still has that part of him that is a healer, at least for Patroclus he does. Their argument here is a disagreement about the fundamental nature of honor: Patroclus thinks that honor means doing the moral thing, while Achilles is caught up in the Greek definition of honor, which has more to do with defending your “property” than it does with acting empathetically. Achilles seems to be almost jealous of Briseis, accusing Patroclus of choosing her over him—this suggests that, at least subconsciously, Achilles also didn’t mind that his plan involved hurting Briseis because she was an obstacle between him and Patroclus. Achilles and Patroclus are both worried about Achilles’s legacy, but Patroclus wants this legacy to reflect Achilles as Patroclus sees him and believes him to be. But the fact that Achilles was more concerned about his legacy than the well-being of someone else suggests that Patroclus doesn’t always see Achilles clearly. And as Achilles final comment makes clear, Patroclus not only doesn’t but can’t see the full Achilles: there are terrible things that Achilles has done that he hasn’t told Patroclus about. Finally, Much like he did when he decided to go to Troy, Achilles seems to be putting his honor over his love for Patroclus, since he claims his reputation is the only thing he has—this isn’t true, since he has Patroclus.
Themes
