Even when the epic “The Iliad” was written down on papyrus almost 3,000 years ago, the story of Achilles and the others had been passed down orally for several hundred years. When American Madeline Miller published the novel “The Song of Achilles” in 2012, she thus entered into a tradition as long as Western literature. Although there is much we do not know about the “Iliad” and the twin work “The Odyssey”, it is fairly certain that both were written down around the 7th century BC. Since then, they have inspired new generations of artists to create stories, poems, vase painting, shoe games and films about heroic deeds and fanfare from ancient Greece. The fact that Madeline Miller taught teenagers Latin and Greek for 10 years before she picked up the PC and wrote her version tells us two things: that Miller knows Greek, and that she knows what resonates with the target group. New times, new interpretations. Our modern Achilles is both archaic and modern. He sacrifices everything for honor, but is otherwise a sociable guy. ACHILLES IN OUR TIME: The modernized version of the history of Achilles was published in English in 2012, to good acclaim. A decade later, she has risen again through TikTok, and a new generation has pressed the Greek myth to its chest. Photo: Lefteris Pitarakis / AP Handsome boys in the war Miller’s Achilles stamps on many of the important post offices: He is the son of the sea goddess Thetis and King Peleus. He is beautiful, and skilled in battle. He is raised by the wise centaur Kheiron. Together with many other Greek petty kings, he went to Troy to retrieve the beautiful Helena, who had been robbed by the Trojan prince Paris. One day he becomes enraged, and there, with Achilles’ fury, the story begins in “The Iliad”, the epic that covers several days of the 10-year-long Trojan War: “Sing goddess, about the wrath that took the Peleid Achilles…” The narrator of “The Iliad” stands some distance away. The story uses hexameter verse, the language is convoluted, the digressions many, long and partly understood. The reader must keep his tongue firmly in his mouth to keep up. Miller gave the floor to his friend and lover Patroklos. He tells about life as he experiences it, and that in completely everyday modern prose. The two do not come to Troy until page 195. Before that, they have lived a rich life. INSPIRING POEMS: Achilles and Patroklos’ love has created a solid collection of fan art online. FROM TIKTOK TO NORLI: The success of “The Song of Achilles” in the reading horse corner of TikTok, affectionately called BookTok, has led to it being given a new life in bookstores and libraries. AN ARTISTIC JOURNEY IN TIME: The fan art from “The Song of Achilles” allowed readers to imagine what the lovers looked like in their time. Homosexual monogamy In the novel, the two princes explore the world – and not least eroticism. Patroklos and Achilles love each other. Not just as teenagers, as was usual, but also when they grow up and should have a wife and get heirs. That Achilles becomes the father of Phyrros is more of an accident. Patroklos is our man. He sees that much of what Achilles has in mind is rather poor when seen with a modern eye, and becomes a kind of intermediary between archaic times and our time. Good try, Patroklos, but understanding is not enough. When Achilles rages and twists, stronger remedies are needed, and I can tell as much as that blood will flow. The BookTok commentators, who have loved the love story, find the bloody twist “heart-breaking”. They may be right about that. A shrill but exciting version When the story about Miller becomes, in the main, a realistic and light-hearted story about warm feelings between two young men, a lot happens. The gods are toned down. Achilles’ relationship with women becomes difficult to understand. His rage, which is about honor, becomes quite irrational, and daily life in the war zone for ten long years becomes more than strange. But there is a lot of strangeness in the version we find in “The Iliad” as well, even if the high style gives greater tolerance for breaking with the plausible. “The Song of Achilles” is well structured and excitingly narrated. That several BookTok users show piles of books for further studies of Greek mythology is directly uplifting. news reviewer Title: “Sangen om Achilles” Author: Madeline Miller Translated by: Heidi Sævareid Genre: Fiction Publisher: Cappelen Damm Pages: 250 Date: 5 January 2023 Hi! I am chief critic of fiction at news. Feel free to read my book reviews of “The Surgeon” by Ida Hegazi Høyer, “Løpe ulv” by Kerstin Ekman or “Matrix” by Lauren Groff.
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“The Song of Achilles” by Madeline Miller – Reviews and recommendations
