I have something really cool for you today. I love The Iliad. I'm that person who read it numerous times. For fun. So I hope you are as excited as I about this book. The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller's debut novel and 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction winner was released in paperback on August 2012. To celebrate, the publisher is offering one copy to a lucky winner. Also, I have a Q&A with Miller. But first, take a look at The Song of Achilles.
Greece in the age of Heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the kingdom of Phthia. Here he is nobody, just another unwanted boy living in the shadow of King Peleus and his golden son, Achilles.
Achilles, 'best of all the Greeks', is everything Patroclus is not — strong, beautiful, the child of a goddess — and by all rights their paths should never cross. Yet one day, Achilles takes the shamed prince under his wing and soon their tentative companionship gives way to a steadfast friendship. As they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something far deeper — despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother Thetis, a cruel and deathly pale sea goddess with a hatred of mortals. Fate is never far from the heels of Achilles. When word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, the men of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows Achilles into war, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they have learned, everything they hold dear. And that, before he is ready, he will be forced to surrender his friend to the hands of Fate. Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.
A Note From the Author:
I have loved ancient Greece since I was five
and my mother began reading me the Greek myths. I was enthralled: by the
larger-than-life gods, the epic adventures, and most particularly by the
stories of the Trojan War, with its noble and deeply flawed heroes. “Sing,
goddess, of the terrible rage of Achilles,” begins The Iliad. The words resonated in me, lingering long after
my mother had closed the book and turned out the light.
Years later, when I
became a student of Greek and Latin, I immediately sought out The Iliad. The poetry and
language were gorgeous, the story even more compelling than I
remembered. I spent a summer in Greece working on an archaeological dig,
and my copy of the The Iliad came with me. There,
wandering in olive groves and swimming in the beautiful Aegean,
I began to think of how I, too, could sing of these ancient tales.
I had always been
especially moved by Achilles, and his desperate grief over the loss of his
companion Patroclus. But who was Patroclus? I searched the ancient texts
for every mention of his name, and discovered an amazing man: exile and
outcast, loyal and self-sacrificing, compassionate in a world where compassion
was in short supply. I had not thought The
Iliad had a love story; I was wrong.
It has been the
deepest privilege and pleasure to spend the last ten years sailing in Homer's
wine-dark waters. I very much hope you will enjoy reading this book as much as
I have loved writing it.
Q & A with Madeline Miller
Do the
Greek myths really matter in our modern world of cutting-edge technology and
tenuous global politics?
MM: It can
be a cliché to call a story timeless.
But the stories of ancient Greece—the Iliad foremost among them—are exactly what this cliché was made
for. To borrow Ben Jonson, they are not
“of an age, but for all time.” Human
nature and its attendant folly, passion, pride and generosity has not changed
in the past three thousand years, and are always relevant. And especially at this fractured and shifting
historical moment, I think people are looking back to the past for
insight. These stories have endured this
long, moving generation after generation of readers—they must, still, have
something important to tell us about ourselves.
Every day on the front page of the newspaper is an Iliad of woes—from the self-serving Agamemnons to the manipulative,
double-speaking Odysseuses, from the senseless loss of life in war to the
brutal treatment of the conquered. It is
all there, in Homer too: our past, present and future, inspiration and
condemnation both.
I would also add, more specifically,
that I think the culture is ready for the kind of love story that transcends
gender and time. I did not deliberately set out to tell a “gay” love story;
rather, I was deeply moved by the love between these two characters—whose
respect and affection for each other, despite the horrors around them, model
the kind of relationship we all can aspire to.
How much of the Achilles story depicted in THE SONG OF
ACHILLES is based on the classics and how much did you create in order to tell
the story? And, can you explain how you
did your research for the book?
MM: In some ways I feel like I’ve been researching
this book my whole life! I have loved
the ancient Greek myths since I was a child, and studied Latin and Greek
throughout high school, college, and graduate school. My professors gave me an incredible and
electrifying education in ancient history and literature, and all of it helped
provide the foundation for the book—though at the time, of course, I had no
idea that I would one day use it for fiction.
Once I started writing the novel, I
inevitably discovered that I needed to know more: What exactly did ancient ship
sails look like? What kind of flora and
fauna does Homer mention? My background
in Classics helped there too; I had a lot of the answers already on my
bookshelf, or I knew where to go to find the information I needed. It was also extremely helpful that I had
spent time in parts of Greece and Turkey.
It was very important to me to stay
faithful to the events of the Homer’s narrative. The central inspiration behind the book is
the terrible moment in the Iliad when
Achilles hears about Patroclus’ death.
His reaction is shocking in its intensity. The great half-god warrior—who carelessly
defies rules, and condemns a whole army to death—comes completely unglued,
desperate with grief and rage. I wanted
to understand what it was about Patroclus and their relationship that could
create that kind of crisis. Although
Homer tells us what his characters
do, he doesn’t tell us much of why
they do it. Who was Achilles? And why
did he love Patroclus so much? Writing
the novel was my way of answering that question.
The biggest changes to the mythology
came with the stories about Achilles’ life before he came to Troy, which the Iliad doesn’t cover. There are many, many variations on these, so
part of what I was doing was figuring out which ones added to the novel’s arc,
and which ones I should omit.
Most people don’t know that much about Patroclus and his
relationship with Achilles. How did you
come up with your theory that their friendship grew into love?
MM: I stole it from Plato!
The idea that Patroclus and Achilles were lovers is quite old. Many Greco-Roman authors read their
relationship as a romantic one—it was a common and accepted interpretation in
the ancient world. We even have a
fragment from a lost tragedy of Aeschylus, where Achilles speaks of his and
Patroclus’ “frequent kisses.”
There is a lot of support for
their relationship in the text of the Iliad
itself, though Homer never makes it explicit.
For me, the most compelling piece of evidence, aside from the depth of
Achilles’ grief, is how he grieves:
Achilles refuses to burn Patroclus’ body, insisting instead on keeping the
corpse in his tent, where he constantly weeps and embraces it—despite the
horrified reactions of those around him. That sense of physical devastation
spoke deeply to me of a true and total intimacy between the two men.
What about the “Achilles Heel” legend? Where does it come from, and after all of
your research, do you believe it?
MM: Achilles’ most famous myth—his fatally
vulnerable heel—is actually a very late story.
Our earliest account of it is by a Roman author, almost a millennium
after the Iliad and the Odyssey were first composed. During those thousand years a number of other
stories popped up to explain Achilles’ seeming invincibility, but the Iliad and Odyssey contain the simplest: he wasn’t really invincible, just
extraordinarily gifted in battle. Since
the Iliad and Odyssey were my primary inspiration, and since their interpretation
seemed more realistic, this was the version I chose to follow.
There are a number of fun myths about
the heel, once that story became popular.
The most famous one is that, in trying to make him immortal, his mother,
the goddess Thetis, dipped him in the river Styx. The place where she held him—his heel—was the
only place not made invulnerable. Every
time I have told this story to my middle school students, they erupt into
chaos:
“That’s so stupid! Why didn’t she just switch heels and dip him
twice?”
“Or go back later, and do it
again?”
“The water would still have seeped in!”
So that may have also influenced me on finding that
a not-as-compelling reading.
If one wanted to visit Greece and its surrounding
countries now, and walk in Achilles and Patroclus’ footsteps, and “re-live” the
Trojan War, what modern cities should they visit and what might they find
there?
MM: The journey would begin in northern Greece, in the
region of Thessaly. We aren’t sure where Peleus’ palace may have been (if it
was a real place), but certainly Mount Pelion is still there. It is a gorgeous spot to go hiking, and
there’s even a mountain train that runs on the weekends. Nearby, the major port town Volos is a
wonderful place to visit and, given its excellent location, could very well
have been a good Phthian settlement in antiquity.
Next up would be the island of
Scyros, where the goddess Thetis hid her son Achilles from the war, disguising
him as a woman. Scyros is in the middle
of the Aegean, the most southern of the Sporades
island cluster. It’s quite rocky,
especially in its southern region, and also has some wonderful Byzantine and
Venetian monuments, along with its stunning landscapes and beaches. If you want
the full Achilles experience, cross-dressing is a must.
After that, it’s off to Aulis,
(modern Avlida), in Boetia, due north of Athens. This is where the Greek fleet gathered before
setting off to Troy. It’s quite a small
town, but there are beaches, of course, and you can sit on them and pretend
that you’re there waiting for that kid Achilles to finally show up so you can
sack Troy already….
Though Achilles and Patroclus
didn’t actually go there, now is a good time to take a quick detour to
Agamemnon’s palace at Mycenae, in the northern Peloponnese. It’s one of the few Homeric-era ruins that we
do have, other than Troy itself. You
can see the famous “Lion-Gate” entrance to the city, as well as the circular
graves where the golden “Mask of Agamemnon” and “Cup of Nestor” were
found. As you tour the site, imagine
that you’re the proud son of Atreus himself, and bully some subordinates. But don’t go too far: Agamemnon was killed
with an ax in the bathtub by his fed-up wife.
Now, back to Aulis. After joining up with the fleet, Achilles and
Patroclus would have made their way to Troy, stopping several times along the
way. Since we don’t really know where
they stopped (even in mythology), I think that this gives you the right to land
at pretty much any fabulous Greek island that you wish. If you take the southern route, you can drop
by Lesbos, where the famous poetess Sappho (whom Plato named the tenth muse),
lived and wrote. Farther north is the
island of Lemnos, which was infamous in ancient mythology as the home of the
venomous snake that crippled the hero Philoctetes. Watch where you step!
Personally though, I would recommend
choosing the most northern route, which takes you, with just a little detour,
by the incredible city of Istanbul. I had the good fortune to visit Istanbul
this past spring, and it is breathtaking.
Everywhere you look there is some priceless piece of history, from the
Hittites to the Ottomans, not to mention its many modern attractions. So, you heard it here first: Patroclus
definitely went to Istanbul.
Last
stop: Troy itself, perched just below the Dardanelles. The nearby city of Canakkale is a great place
to stay and boasts the full-size prop of the Trojan Horse used by the 2004
movie Troy. Brad Pitt himself arranged the donation, the
rumor goes!
A short
bus ride south brings you to the ancient archaeological site. Stand amid the ruins of five thousand years
of history, and look out over the plains where the Greeks and Trojans
fought. Though not much is left but
stones, the feel of the place is unmistakably epic. Be sure to bring a jacket:
not for nothing did Homer call it ‘Windy Ilios.’ Find the highest point—all that’s left of one
of the ancient city’s famous towers— and remember the Iliad’s immortal first line:
Sing, goddess, of the rage of Achilles.
What do you hope that readers will gain from reading
your book? And, what do you say to folks
that say, reading the Greek myths is just too hard and not very
interesting? That kids in school should
be able to choose their own reading materials (vampire novels, and the like)
and not have to worry about these classics?
MM: For those who have dipped into an ancient
epic—the Iliad, say, or the Aeneid— and found it boring, here is my
answer: I understand.
As a teacher, I have often had students
who would come to me at the beginning of the school year and confess, I read the Aeneid over the summer and hated
it. It doesn’t worry me: the poems
assume a lot of background knowledge—who the gods are, and what the back story
is. They also assume that their audience
understands epic conventions, like listing all the generals and their ships, or
using frequent repetition. If you don’t
have that knowledge, the book can feel like a confusing slog. But, if you go into it with a guide—a good
introduction, a quick re-read of Greek myths, a friend who loves it—then it
just comes to life in your hands. Every
one of those students, at the end of the school year, declared that they loved
Vergil and they loved the Aeneid.
One of my explicit desires in writing
this book was to make it so that readers didn’t have to know anything about the
Iliad to enjoy it. I wanted to give them everything they needed
to follow the action right then and there, so that they could experience Homer
just as his first audiences would have: as entertainment, instead of an object
of study.
The good news is that even if someone
doesn’t appreciate a Classic text in school, they might go back to it later and
realize that they enjoy it after all. I
read Toni Morrison’s Sula in tenth
grade and it went completely over my head; I just couldn’t connect with
it. Then I picked it up again a few
years ago, and absolutely loved it. So
there’s always hope. In the meantime,
what’s wrong with vampires?
As for what I hope readers will
gain: I certainly would love to hear that the novel inspired some interest in
Greek mythology in general, and the Iliad
in particular. I hope too that it might
help to combat the homophobia that I see too often.
In writing this novel, I thought
a lot about personal responsibility.
Patroclus is not an epic person, the way Achilles is. He’s an “ordinary” man. But he has more power than he thinks, and the
moments where he reaches out to others and offers what he sees as his very
modest assistance have huge positive ramifications. Most of us aren’t Achilles—but we can still
be Patroclus. What does it mean to try
to be an ethical person in a violent world?
Madeline Miller grew up in Philadelphia, has a BA and MA from Brown University in Latin and Ancient Greek, and has been teaching both for the past nine years. She has also studied at the Yale School of Drama, specializing in adapting classical tales to a modern audience. She grew up in New York City and Philadelphia, but now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Song of Achilles is her first novel. Visit: www.madelinemiller.com.
Now for the Giveaway
In celebration of the paperback release of The Song of Achilles, Harper Collins is giving one of you a copy of book!
A couple of rules:
- The giveaway is open to residents of the US only. (Due to shipping costs.)
- Entrants must be 17+ years of age to enter.
- Must fill out the Rafflecopter form.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Series: Come Undone #1
