Book Club Guide

The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller · 2011 · Literary Fiction

Key themes

Love as the human thing that heroism cannot contain
The Iliad retold from the margin — and what you see from there
Fate, prophecy and the hero who knows how his story ends

About this book

Patroclus, a young Greek prince, is exiled to the court of Peleus where he meets the brilliant, gold-haired Achilles. Their childhood friendship becomes love; their love leads to Troy. Miller's retelling of the Iliad through the eyes of Patroclus is one of the most beloved retellings of classical myth in recent years.

Published in 2011 after years of rejection, The Song of Achilles won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Miller worked on it for ten years, re-reading the Iliad and classical scholarship exhaustively.

Discussion questions

Patroclus loves Achilles but is also the novel's narrator and moral conscience. How does Miller use this divided loyalty — between love and clear-eyed witness?
Achilles knows he will die at Troy and chooses to go anyway. What is Miller saying through this choice about heroism, glory and what human beings sacrifice for their idea of themselves?
The Iliad is one of the most studied texts in the world. What does Miller's retelling add — and what does reading it through Patroclus's eyes reveal that Homer's epic cannot say?
The novel is also a love story. How does Miller develop the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus alongside the epic framework — and does the intimacy work against the grandeur or serve it?
The Song of Achilles was rejected many times before publication. What in it do you think publishers initially resisted — and why did it then become so beloved?