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 morning, the news of Achilles departure spreads quickly, and Patroclus can hear the gossip. He goes outside to avoid the other boys, but he smells the sea immediately, and he’s determined to get away from the stench of “salty decay.” He walks north—the palace lies on a pathway to the mountains, including Mount Pelion. Patroclus realizes suddenly that he can just leave to follow Achilles; he has no belongings, nothing to pack. His only regret would be leaving his mother’s lyre, but there’s no time to go get it, so he sprints away from the palace. He vows that if he sees Achilles again, he’ll keep his thoughts to himself.
Patroclus is back where he started, isolated from everyone else on Phthia. His association of the smell of the ocean with decay seems to be derived from his anger at Thetis for sending Achilles away. Perhaps it also is connected to the fact that Thetis sent Achilles to go train to fight and kill. That Patroclus leaves the lyre behind when he decides to go after Achilles is symbolically significant. He’s willing to leave behind childhood innocence for Achilles. That he assumes Achilles also left without the lyre signifies that he recognizes that Achilles, in going to train and fight, is also leaving innocence behind.
Themes
After two hours, Patroclus slows down, exhausted and unsure of how much longer the journey to Pelion will be. He realizes that he won’t make it by nightfall, and he has no supplies for survival—he’ll never catch up to Achilles. Suddenly, he hears someone around him, attempting stealth; he thinks it could be Peleus’s soldiers, Thetis, or bandits. Suddenly someone strikes Patroclus from behind and he whirls: it’s Achilles. He says that he hoped Patroclus would come. Patroclus feels deep relief and joy.
Patroclus obviously didn’t think this journey through, as he finds himself stranded and vulnerable. That his “attacker” ends up being Achilles is ironic, since Achilles is more dangerous than Peleus’s soldiers, bandits, and maybe even Thetis. But he’s not dangerous to Patroclus, so Patroclus doesn’t note the irony. That Achilles hoped Patroclus would follow indicates that when Achilles ran away from their kiss, it wasn’t because he doesn’t care about Patroclus.
Themes
Achilles’s new mentor, Chiron, appears; he’s half-human, half-horse, which startles Patroclus. Achilles apologizes to Chiron for his delay and says he was waiting for his companion. Chiron offers to carry Achilles and Patroclus to Pelion on his back, since Patroclus is weak and overtired—it’s not something he usually offers, but the situation calls for it. There are rules: he doesn’t like to be tugged, and the person in back needs to hold the person in front. Patroclus climbs behind Achilles and grabs onto his torso. As they move, Chiron points out features of the landscape.
Achilles once again plays a bit with the truth: he was waiting for Patroclus, but he had no way of knowing whether or not Patroclus would follow, so it’s not entirely the truth. Once again, Achilles’s honor code is malleable. Chiron seems to have a code of his own, which is in part based on pride and being treated respectfully. That Chiron only agrees to let the boys ride him because Patroclus is weak doesn’t bother Patroclus the way it might have at the start of the novel, which points to the distance he’s placed between himself and his father’s expectations.
Themes
Chiron stops at a grove in the midst of woods, close to the mountain’s peak. There’s a cave there made of rose quartz. Inside, the ceiling is dyed to look like the night sky, and there are instruments, including lyres. There’s one bed for Achilles—Chiron apparently doesn’t need one. He cooks for Achilles and Patroclus, and Patroclus keeps watching Achilles, giddy at his escape from Phthia.
That Chiron’s training ground contains beauty and lyres in addition to what will certainly be weapons suggests those things aren’t as incompatible as Patroclus assumed when he left Phthia. It’s a pretty domestic scene with Chiron cooking—overall, this doesn’t seem to be the kind of place that breeds violent warriors like Heracles, although that’s exactly what it is.
Themes
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Patroclus asks Chiron what the tools on the wall are, and Chiron says they’re for surgery, something Patroclus isn’t familiar with. Surgery is, as Chiron describes it, a kind of healing in which someone cuts off parts of a body to save the rest. Chiron asks if Patroclus wants to learn medicine, and Patroclus says yes. Achilles fixates on the lyres and asks Chiron to help him play. Chiron, softening slightly, agrees.
Chiron’s description of surgery is an interesting one. Basically, he’s saying that surgery is a kind of necessary violence, one that heals rather than hurts. Again, Chiron’s interest in medicine and his offer to teach Patroclus medicine and Achilles music seem at odds with what he’s supposed to be doing. But Chiron is obviously not a bloodthirsty trainer, and Achilles will not be exclusively trained in violence. This complicates things again—the more human Achilles is allowed to be, the more difficult his destiny will become.
Themes
Later that night, Chiron sends Achilles and Patroclus to bathe in the river, teaching them about plants all the while. There’s something about Chiron’s authority that makes Patroclus feel boyish again, and it soothes any awkwardness between him and Achilles, even though both are naked. Chiron continues teaching them about the flora and fauna—they’ve never met anyone who had this much knowledge, and they’re excited about it.
Like Achilles, Chiron seems to be someone who attains respect without dominance—both Achilles and Patroclus accept his authority and follow his commands without resenting them or seeing them as an insult to their honor. Chiron’s authority here is based not on strength or dominance, but on knowledge. Achilles’s and Patroclus’s interest in the subject of plants again hints at the ways that they are different from other Greek men who all seem primarily focused on war and valor.
Themes
Back in the cave, Chiron tells Achilles that Thetis sent him a message: if Patroclus followed Achilles, Chiron should send him away. Chiron reveals that she did not, however, say why. Patroclus is relieved that their kiss remains secret. Chiron is upset about Achilles’s deception, since Achilles acted like Patroclus was supposed to come with him all along. However, the message from Thetis came before the boys arrived, so he knew the whole time. Achilles insists that Thetis is wrong about Patroclus, and that Patroclus is, in fact, a fit companion. Chiron asks if Patroclus agrees that he’s worthy. Patroclus doesn’t know if he is, but he begs to stay anyway.
Chiron chides Achilles here for his willingness to deceive, even if he didn’t outright lie. Meanwhile, this scene reveals more about why Thetis dislikes Patroclus: she thinks he’s unworthy of Achilles. Thetis is devoted to the divine half of her son, and sees the mortal—and not even heroic—Patroclus as sullying Achilles divine aspect. The fact that Patroclus doesn’t immediately claim to be worthy of Achilles is interesting—he’s much less proud than he was at the beginning of the novel. His own honor and worth don’t seem to matter to him as long as he can stay with Achilles.
Themes
Chiron agrees that Patroclus can stay, even though it will anger Thetis. When they arrived, he didn’t know what decision he’d make, but now he sees that in some ways, Thetis’s immortality prejudices her against Patroclus—although some of the faults she’s observed do exist. Achilles goes to bed, but Patroclus stays behind to tell Chiron that, if it’s too much trouble for him to stay, he’ll leave. Chiron tells him not to give up something he’s gained so easily.
Chiron here acknowledges that way that the divine hates and underestimates the mortal. It’s never stated what faults Chiron sees in Patroclus that Thetis also sees. The fact that Patroclus offers to leave and essentially give up Achilles is significant; this is the same boy who was willing to fight for some stupid dice earlier in the novel. Here, Chiron seems to suggest that some things are worth fighting for, even if that fight isn’t violent. Notably, though, Chiron’s comment has nothing to do with honor and everything to do with Patroclus’s love for Achilles.
Themes
