Name one hero who was happy. – The Song of Achilles
Homer, Plato, and Aristotle—these are the most common answer if you ask someone to name a Greek author, but sadly, not as many readers pick up their stories anymore. In school they will teach you a little about the old Greeks and their mythology, but for some, including myself, it was never enough.
When I first discovered Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan, I thanked the universe for this excellent series. To take well-known characters from Greek mythology and to mix it with a fresh new tale and fantasy was a complete joy. Thankfully, more writers continue to do so by retelling the story of Greek heroes or filling in the gaps of their lives by weaving a new tale, and Madeline Miller is doing just that.
‘There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,’ Chiron said. ‘And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?’ – The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller is an American novelist with a degree in classics from Brown University. She studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought and was part of the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of Drama. It was there that she focused on the adaptation of classical texts to modern forms.
Miller combines history and fiction in a unique new way while retelling the story of historical figures and giving them a deeper meaning in regards to the historical events around them. The characters are written so well that you can feel their emotions coming out of the pages and overwhelming you.
While working for ten years on her debut novel The Song of Achilles, she worked as a Latin and Greek teacher and taught high school students about Shakespeare for more than fifteen years. The book was first published in 2011 with it quickly becoming a bestseller and winning the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction.
Achilles was a Greek hero participating in the Trojan War and he was the main character in Homer’s Iliad. He is a great warrior with only one point of weakness: his heel. Another character from Homer’s Iliad is Patroclus, the son of Meneotius. As a child, Patroclus had killed another child by accident and his father, ashamed of what his son did, disinherited. He sent him away to live in Peleus’ kingdom where Patroclus tried his best to fit in. Soon after his arrival, he was named henchman to the kings son, which happened to be Achilles.
In The Song of Achilles, the story mainly focuses on the both of them. While Achilles has to spend some time with his teacher Chiron, one of the wisest centaurs in Greek mythology, but he later leads his father’s army in the Trojan War where Patroclus also follows. On the outside, it seems that they are getting along well and even begin to become friends, but at the end, it’s revealed that they are a lot more than that.
The story mainly focuses on both of them. While Achilles has to spend some time with his teacher Chiron, one of the wisest centaur in Greek mythology, and later leading his father’s army in the Trojan War, Patroclus follows. On the outside it seems that they are getting alone well and even start to become friends. At the end it is revealed that they are a lot more than that.
I could recognise him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world. – The Song of Achilles
Miller was inspired by Plato who was the first to point out that Achiles and Patroclus have to be in love with each other. Towards the end of the Trojan War, Patroclus dies and Achilles refuses to burn Patroclus’ body and he insists on keeping his corpse in his tent.
You cannot know how frightened gods are of pain. There is nothing more foreign to them, and so nothing they ache more deeply to see. – Circe
In 2018, Madeline Miller published her second novel, Circe. Circe is another figure from Greek mythology and appeared in Homer’s Odyssey. She is a goddess of magic and the daughter of the sun-god Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse.
The novel is a mix of family rivalry, palace intrigue, and love and loss, but mostly it shows a female’s strength in a man’s world. Circe stars with telling the early life of Circe: how she was the first-born child who adored her parents, but lived a sheltered life and longed for love. After her sister and two brothers are born, she is quickly forgotten by her own family and while her siblings are married or taking over kingdoms, Circe meets a fisherman named Glaucos, who she quickly falls in love with. Circe wanted nothing more than to be with him forever, but since he had no power, she asks her aunt to turn him into a god, and so she does.
It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did. – Circe
However, Glaucos quickly forgets about Circe and becomes interested in other women. She becomes so angry that she accidentally turns one girl into a monster and she finds out that she has magic in her blood. For this crime, she is cast out into exile on an island and stays there for most of her existence. During that time, you get to read about a lot of other well-known mythological Greek characters as gods and heroes find their way to her island.
Miller has also published an eBook short story called Galatea, which is about a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece – the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen – the gift of life.
If you want to know more about Madeline Miller you can check her website or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
You can find The Song of Achilles on Book Depository and Amazon, and Circe on Book Depository and Amazon, along with other good book retailers.
