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 continues to watch Achilles during meals in the dining hall. Once, Patroclus sneers at Achilles inside his head, then he and Achilles make eye contact, which startles Patroclus. Patroclus is deeply jealous of Achilles, who is unmarked by any scars, his feet without calluses. When Patroclus watches Achilles, it’s the only time he feels anything at all. One day, Achilles and his admirers sit at Patroclus’s table, which is normally empty. Achilles begins to juggle figs; while juggling is considered to be a low-class act, Achilles makes it beautiful.
Patroclus is jealous of Achilles because Achilles has everything Patroclus wants, including a loving father. Achilles’s lack of scars suggests that no one has ever hurt him, physically or emotionally. (It also references Achilles’ mythological back-story in which Thetis protected his entire body other than his heel by dipping him as an infant in the River Styx.) Achilles himself, though, doesn’t seem to care about status and reputation—he willingly performs low-class tricks and sits with the friendless Patroclus. Achilles seems to be so powerful and beloved that he can’t conceive of anyone taking his honor, and so he never needs to fight for it.
Themes
The next day, Patroclus meets Peleus. Peleus says that while Patroclus is in Phthia because he killed a boy, he hopes that Patroclus still ends up a good man. Sometime later, when the other boys learn why Patroclus is in Phthia (perhaps from a gossipy servant, Patroclus thinks), they give him a wide berth. They’re afraid and fascinated, certain that the gods will punish Patroclus. Patroclus avoids them in response.
Again the novel highlights the way this society undervalues women: Peleus, who raped Thetis, lectures Patroclus, who accidentally killed another boy, about being a good person. Yet Peleus’s comment also suggests that Patroclus might have some power over his own life, that he can become who he wants to be despite his past. That viewpoint stands in stark contrast to what the bother boys think: they avoid Patroclus because they think he has no control over his fate, and that the gods will punish him for his past.
Themes
One day, Achilles finds Patroclus hiding in a storeroom and asks him what his excuse will be for missing training—he’s clearly not sick, which is what Achilles assumed at first. Angry at this interference, Patroclus says that Achilles should claim they’ve been spending time together, which would excuse him, given Achilles’s royal status. But unlike other boys his age, the Achilles states that he hates lying. Patroclus is surprised Achilles admits to this: he has learned that honesty is weak, something children grow out of. Patroclus petulantly suggests that they go to Achilles lesson together to make his lie the truth. To Patroclus’s shock, Achilles agrees.
Achilles’s motivations for helping Patroclus are a mystery—at this point, Patroclus still dislikes Achilles, so readers aren’t privy to Achilles’s good qualities. The fact that honesty is considered weak or childish in Greece is another indication that this society has conflated strength with honor. Achilles, then, seems more genuinely honorable and good than other people, since he hates to lie. That said, Achilles is willing to bend the truth in a way that helps others. Achilles seems to possess an inner code that motivates him to help Patroclus here.
Themes
Patroclus accompanies Achilles to his lyre lesson. While Patroclus doesn’t know how to play (because his father hated music), he picks up one of the room’s many lyres anyway. Achilles begins to play his lyre; it’s the same one that Patroclus gave to the royal family when he came to Phthia. This lyre belonged to Patroclus’s mother, and when Achilles plays it, it makes a “pure” sound. Patroclus’s mother enjoyed watching visiting bards play. Patroclus wants to tell Achilles who the lyre belonged to, but he knows it wouldn’t do any good and he refuses Achilles’s offer to let him hold it. The lyre instructor arrives, and Patroclus listens to Achilles play and sing, refusing to play himself. The sounds of the lyre and Achilles’s voice soothe Patroclus and bring him unexpected joy.
In this passage, Patroclus’s mother’s lyre takes on new significance: it’s not just a part of her dowry, but represents both her innocence and Achilles’s. The lyre makes a “pure” sound, and Patroclus—who is far from innocent, since he murdered someone—can’t play it. Meanwhile, Patroclus’s mother liked the lyre’s music innately—a signal of her “natural” innocence that the novel seems to suggest was a product of her mental “simplicity.” Because Achilles takes ownership of the lyre, Patroclus compares Achilles to his mother here, which suggests that Achilles shares some of her “simplicity,” though he doesn’t have the same limitations that she did. Part of Patroclus’s father’s vain efforts to seem masculine included a hatred of music. Achilles skill makes clear that masculinity can involve an appreciation of beauty too. That Patroclus can appreciate Achille’s music-making suggests he has the capacity to see the value in Achilles way of being a boy/man in the world.
Themes
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