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Chapter 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Song of Achilles, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Honor, Pride, and Legacy
Fate, Belief, and Control
Gender, Power, and Agency
Love, Violence, and Redemption
Selfhood and Responsibility
Summary
Analysis
Immediately after the lesson, Achilles brings Patroclus to see Peleus. He asks for his father’s forgiveness: he took Patroclus from his drills. Achilles wants Patroclus to be his sworn companion, a position of high esteem. Peleus observes Patroclus; for years, he’s wanted Achilles to take a companion, and no one sufficed. But Achilles says that he finds Patroclus surprising. Though Peleus notes that Patroclus will not help Achilles’s reputation, Achilles doesn’t care. Peleus agrees to Achilles request. Patroclus is shell-shocked; he doesn’t understand why Achilles chose him, small as he is, cursed as he is.
Achilles statement here is technically true, though it continues to bend the truth. Achilles’s honesty seems to be at least somewhat malleable, much like Greek honor is malleable depending on the circumstance. Achilles’s reason for wanting Patroclus as his companion—that Patroclus surprises him—is interesting, and may refer to Patroclus’s open hostility toward him—all the other boys worship Achilles, but Patroclus doesn’t, or at least doesn’t act like it. Achilles, it’s clear, values different things than the other Greek men do, including his own reputation. The fact that Achilles chooses Patroclus is proof of this, because as Patroclus notes, he’s small and dishonored. These are two things that might prevent others from befriending him, and certainly prevented his father from caring about him.
Themes
Achilles and Patroclus part ways after leaving Peleus’s chamber. Achilles is about to practice fighting, which he never allows anyone to see. After hesitating a moment, he tells Patroclus that his mother, Thetis, has forbidden anyone to see him fight. Achilles says that he’s destined to be the best warrior of his generation, a prophecy that was given before he was born. He adds that some people know about it, although most don’t, and that’s why he trains alone.
Achilles’s revelation that he’s destined to be a great fighter is all the more shocking given his gentle lyre-playing and scrupulous honesty. It now makes sense that Achilles is unconcerned with how others perceive him and with Patroclus’s impact on his reputation—his fated greatness gives him cover to be himself and focus on what he cares about without having to posture. It’s also worth noting that Achilles destined greatness is directly connected to his capacity for committing violence. However, this fits with what has been made clear about the Greeks, and the value they place on physical prowess and war skills.
Themes
At dinner that night, Achilles and his friends again join Patroclus’s table, and Achilles tells Patroclus that he’ll sleep in Achilles’s room tonight. The other boys are surprised by his choice of companion, as surprised as Peleus and Patroclus were. In Achilles’s room, the two sit awkwardly. Eventually, Achilles asks Patroclus to help him juggle. He calls out to Patroclus, who tosses him more balls. Patroclus would normally hate being ordered around like this, but commands from Achilles don’t sound like commands. Patroclus then lies down on his designated pallet and watches Achilles sleep; he thinks that Achilles looks beautiful, but cold and harsh. Patroclus wishes that Achilles would wake and appear alive again.
Aman like Patroclus’s father would never choose someone small and cursed like Patroclus as a companion, because he always feels he must prove his manhood. But Achilles seems to hold his honor innately, and so shares no such worries. Presumably, this is also part of the reason that Achilles’s commands don’t bother Patroclus. Achilles isn’t trying to bully Patroclus the way Patroclus’s father or Clysonymus did. Instead, he gains people’s respect without dominance, which seems unusual for the Greeks. Yet the fact that Achilles’s beauty turns cold and harsh in sleep hints that Achilles has is not just a beautiful, kind boy—as his divine mother and fate to be the greatest ever warrior suggests. Patroclus prefers the kindhearted boy.
Themes
Over time, Patroclus grows used to their new arrangements and stops expecting to be thrown back to the barracks at any moment. He still has nightmares about Clysonymus, but when he wakes up, Achilles is there. Even asleep, Achilles’s vividness makes frightening things seem far away. Patroclus learns that Achilles isn’t quite as perfect as he seems; he’s mischievous and likes to test himself at skills like jumping and catching.
In this passage, Achilles is the antidote to Patroclus’s guilt and fixation on death. It's interesting that Patroclus associates Achilles with “vivid” life and goodness, given that Achilles’s destiny is violent. As he gets to know Achilles, Patroclus discovers just how human Achilles is, even though perhaps it should be the opposite now that Patroclus knows about the prophecy. Achilles always seems to occupy both worlds—the human world in which he can be himself, and the fated world in which he will become what the gods have decreed.
Themes
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Eventually, Patroclus tells Achilles little bits about his life back home, including that the lyre used to belong to his mother. Achilles says that he’s glad that Patroclus’s father sent the lyre to Phthia with him. Patroclus grows comfortable with Achilles, who always says exactly what he means and is confused by those who don’t. Some people might think this makes him “simple,” but Patroclus knows there’s intelligence in it.
Again the lyre is connected with “simplicity,” and suggests a kind of similar innocence between Achilles and Patroclus’s mother. Notably, this is an innocence that Patroclus lost after committing murder—he no longer possesses the lyre, or his mother. But his friendship with Achilles puts him in touch with that innocence, that simplicity. But while Patroclus seemed to accept that his mother really was only “simple,” Patroclus thinks that Achilles’s honesty is an honorable part of him, not a sign of stupidity.
Themes
One afternoon, Achilles nervously invites Patroclus to watch him train. Patroclus tries to grab a spear, but Achilles tells him he doesn’t fight with others. Achilles supposes that this means that he has no way of knowing whether he really is the best fighter in Greece, as the prophecy claims. As Patroclus watches, he notices that Achilles’s real skill is speed; his spear flashes in his hand, and his feet move too quickly for human eyes. Patroclus can almost picture an army around him, though Achilles fights only air. His movements are precise, but fluid, like a fish in water.
Achilles goddess mother has told him not to let others see him fight—an order Achilles is breaking now. Patroclus demonstrated how much he trusted Achilles when he told him about the lyre; Achilles is demonstrating his trust in Patroclus by letting him watch now. In a way, they’re both confessing—indirectly—to either violent acts (in Patroclus’s case) or their capacity for violence (in Achilles’s), but these confessions are also proof that they care about one another. Notably, Achilles’s fighting isn’t actually violent here. He’s not training with anyone. It’s Patroclus who introduces hypothetical violence to the situation by imagining an army around Achilles. Achilles fighting skill seems to be innate, so natural that he’s as comfortable fighting as a fish would be swimming. But Patroclus can’t simply appreciate the beauty of Achilles movements; he can only imagine them in the context of war.
Themes
When Achilles stops, Patroclus asks who trained him. Achilles replies that Peleus did “a little,” but most of his skill is innate. Feeling frightened, Patroclus asks Achilles to fight him, but Achilles laughs and refuses. To Patroclus, Achilles’s fighting is the closest thing to divinity he’s ever seen; his friend makes violence look beautiful and puts all other fighters to shame. Patroclus continues to demand a fight, taunting Achilles and saying he should be afraid. He wants Achilles to look at him, but Achilles turns away.
This passage suggests that Patroclus’s fear of Achilles’s innate skill is, at its heart, a fear of where that skill comes from. Achilles is a product of the gods, and while he is his own person, his “divinity” was given to him. Patroclus sees Achilles as human and innately good—a god-given capacity for violence complicates that idea. The fact that Achilles’s violence is actually “beautiful” only further makes clear its divine aspect. Patroclus’s desire to fight Achilles, then, seems like an effort to take Achille’s divine fighting skills and bring them to a human level of actual fighting—to push out the divine and make Achilles merely human. It’s also possible that Patroclus is just jealous of his beautiful, perfect friend who excels at what the Greeks most value. Or, perhaps, it’s both. Note also how this scene parallels Patroclus’s interaction with Clysonymus’s, but this time Patroclus takes on the bully role and implies that Achilles is a coward. But Achilles, secure in himself, feels no need to fight back.
Themes
Patroclus tackles Achilles, who easily pins him to the ground and won’t let go. Patroclus has never seen someone fight like that—there’s no one else like Achilles. Achilles wonders what Patroclus is doing, and Patroclus realizes that he’s right: it doesn’t matter. There is no one like Achilles, something he used to be jealous of. Now, he’s no longer angry. Achilles senses this shift and smiles, an expression Patroclus compares to the sun.
Patroclus acts on his jealousy and his desire to knock Achilles down to a human level by literally tackling him. But in doing so he comes fully face-to-face with Achilles’s unbelievable skill and utter uniqueness, and he at last lets his fear and his jealousy go. In this moment, Patroclus realizes that Achilles is such a singular person—in both his fighting skill and his “simplicity” and code of honor—that to compare himself with Achilles or deny Achilles specialness simply doesn’t make sense. Patroclus’s comparison of Achilles to the sun cements this idea that Patroclus has accepted Achilles as the center of his world; it also implies that despite Achilles battle skills that Patroclus still considers Achilles to be innately good and life-giving.
Themes
