After trending on TikTok – or more specifically, BookTok – Madeline Miller’s 2011 novel The Song of Achilles has received renewed attention in the past several months. Song of Achilles is part of a surge of fiction based on the classics released in recent times. After feeling somewhat unconfident in my Classics degree, reading novels based on classical mythology pulled me out of this slump and rekindled my love for the classical world.
Having read the Iliad, I already knew how Song of Achilles would end, but nothing could prepare me for the emotional turmoil of Miller’s version of events. In both Song of Achilles and her other classically-inspired novel Circe (2018), Miller retells the ancient myths in a modern way. They are still based in classical Greece, but reading these tales as modern novels revitalises them. Miller spins her own version of stories found in mythology as well as the canonical Homeric masterpieces, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
A teacher of Latin and Greek, Miller found inspiration in her passion for the classical world. Her reimagining of the ancient myths is reintroducing them to the modern world. This month, four of my friends are reading The Song of Achilles. Every time I go into a bookshop, I see a new classics-based modern fiction novel in the bestsellers section, which I obviously buy. Recent examples of the genre include Pat Barker’s excellent The Silence of the Girls (2018) and The Women of Troy (2021).
Adapting the ancient stories into contemporary tales invites a wider pool of people to consider picking up the book. If I hadn’t studied Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid in school, I would never have read them. They are thousands of years old, dense and hard to get into. Through a modern take on these stories, people are able to understand and enjoy the original myths, which I think is important – and I’m not just saying that to justify my degree.
Song of Achilles follows the story of the classical hero Achilles and his lover Patroclus. Miller reads between Homer’s lines. No scholar or classicist can deny the romantic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. Even my Classics teacher in school continually emphasised that they were lovers. Take these lines, for example: “Patroclus has fallen – he whom I valued more than all others, and love as dearly as my own life? I have lost him.” I think it’s clear they were more than friends. Still not convinced? Achilles describes Patroclus as his heart’s companion. Come on. That’s one of the most romantic lines I’ve ever read. Romeo and Juliet? I don’t know them. Only Achilles and Patroclus could ever make me believe in love. I could argue all day that Homer’s epic poem was a love story rather than a war story, but that’s besides the point.
Through modern adaptations, we can step right back into classical Greece. Reading these novels and others inspired by mythology, I felt as though I too was walking amongst the gods. Reimagining the classics carries them into society today rather than leaving them in the past. They motivate modern writers and artists to draw inspiration from classical works of literature. So next time you’re in a bookshop, make sure you seek out Miller’s two novels – I couldn’t recommend them more.
