The Song of Achilles

by

Madeline Miller

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Song of Achilles makes teaching easy.

Phoinix Character Analysis

Phoinix is Peleus’s most trusted advisor who helps raise Achilles; he later accompanies Achilles and Patroclus to Troy. When Thetis takes Achilles to Scyros, Phoinix is the one to tell Patroclus that he’s gone—he’s a kind and gentle man, and he seems to understand that Achilles and Patroclus love each other romantically. He disapproves of Achilles’s pride in Troy and his refusal to defer to Agamemnon, and he later helps Patroclus and Briseis teach the Trojan women Achilles “claims” as war spoils. Though Phoinix wants Achilles to return and help the Greek army after Achilles’s quarrel with Agamemnon, he doesn’t try to convince him directly. Instead, he tells Patroclus and Achilles a story about the hero Meleager and his wife, Cleopatra, who begged her husband to fight in battle to save his people. Though Meleager did this, his people hated him for how slow he was to help. This story is meant to convince Patroclus to beg Achilles to fight, which he eventually does.
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Phoinix Character Timeline in The Song of Achilles

The timeline below shows where the character Phoinix appears in The Song of Achilles. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Gender, Power, and Agency Theme Icon
...visits Phthia to see the boy, who is otherwise raised by Peleus and Peleus’s advisor, Phoinix. A normal wife would have been happy with Peleus, Patroclus knows, but Thetis despises Peleus... (full context)
Chapter 12
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
...the council chamber, not in the lyre practice room. Nervous, Patroclus eventually finds Peleus’s advisor Phoinix, who’s looking at clay tablets, each bearing the names of men who signed up for... (full context)
Chapter 16
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Love, Violence, and Redemption Theme Icon
Selfhood and Responsibility Theme Icon
...to an onlooker, his vividness makes that onlooker heroic. Achilles defers most war matters to Phoinix, who will come to Troy with them, and he often asks Patroclus’s opinion. But Patroclus... (full context)
Chapter 17
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Selfhood and Responsibility Theme Icon
...it’s a shame that Achilles was so slow to come. After the interaction is over, Phoinix, in a way that suggests he is disapproving of Achilles’s behavior, tells him that their... (full context)
Chapter 19
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Love, Violence, and Redemption Theme Icon
Selfhood and Responsibility Theme Icon
...Greeks. Achilles is calm; when one of the Myrmidons, Automedon, brings Achilles more spears on Phoinix’s orders, he throws unceasingly. Eventually, he has Patroclus stand behind him. The soldiers grow wild;... (full context)
Chapter 21
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Gender, Power, and Agency Theme Icon
Selfhood and Responsibility Theme Icon
...he didn’t even know Achilles liked girls. Each girl goes to Briseis first, and then Phoinix and Patroclus help teach them. Achilles stays away; he was part of the raids, and... (full context)
Chapter 25
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Gender, Power, and Agency Theme Icon
...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... (full context)
Chapter 28
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Gender, Power, and Agency Theme Icon
That night, Phoinix tells them about a duel that happened earlier: Paris offered to fight for Helen in... (full context)
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Selfhood and Responsibility Theme Icon
Phoinix, Odysseus, and Ajax come to Achilles’s tent, where Achilles is playing the lyre. They eat... (full context)
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Fate, Belief, and Control Theme Icon
Gender, Power, and Agency Theme Icon
Selfhood and Responsibility Theme Icon
Phoinix interjects: there’s a story he wants to tell Achilles. Many years ago, the hero Meleager... (full context)
Chapter 33
Honor, Pride, and Legacy Theme Icon
Gender, Power, and Agency Theme Icon
...her, except for Achilles. But Pyrrhus is Achilles’s son, and his spear strikes her back. Phoinix sends someone out to find the body, but they don’t. Patroclus hopes that her gods... (full context)