The Song of Achilles

Chapters 1-6

Reading Check

1. He married her because she came from a wealthy family and was fertile, but he realized she was “simple” on their wedding day. (Chapter 1)

2. He was among the potential suitors at Tyndareus’s citadel, and Patroclus was very young (Chapter 2)

3. Phthia (Chapter 3)

4. He takes in other orphaned/exiled boys. (Chapter 3)

5. He “will be the best warrior of [his] generation.” (Chapter 5)

6. He “will be dead soon enough.” (Chapter 6)

Short Answer

1. He is skipping stones on the beach with his mother. He is unsure if this memory is true because his father rarely lets him spend time with his mother alone. (Chapter 1)

2. Odysseus suggests that Helen choose her future husband for herself, which is a radical suggestion because women rarely choose their spouses. The potential suitors swear before a priest to uphold an oath to protect her, and Helen decides to marry Menelaus. (Chapter 2)

3. Clysonymus is a nobleman’s son who approaches Patroclus to see his dice. Clysonymus threatens to hit Patroclus if he does not hand over the dice. To protect himself from possible harm, Patroclus shoves Clysonymus, who hits a rock and dies. (Chapter 3)

4. Achilles asks Patroclus why he has not been attending his morning drills, insisting he finds an excuse. Patroclus suggests that his excuse should be that he attends Achilles’s lessons with him, and Achilles agrees, inviting him to his lyre lesson and allowing the excuse to become truth. (Chapter 4)

5. Possible examples: “He swung out with them both, moving like liquid, like a fish through the waves;” “As if he heard me, he smiled, and his face was like the sun;” “His feet beat the ground like a dancer, never still.” (Chapter 5)

6. In Chapter 3, Achilles and Patroclus do not speak; however, Achilles takes a liking to Patroclus after inviting him to his lyre lesson and formally requests him to become his companion. By Chapter 6, the two boys are inseparable and spend most of their time together. (Chapters 3-6)

Chapters 7-15

Reading Check

1. He is a centaur. (Chapter 8)

2. Chiron, Peleus, and Thetis (Chapter 10)

3. To announce that Helen has been abducted from Sparta and to ask any able man to fight in the Greek army to retrieve her (Chapter 11)

4. Because she is pregnant with Achilles’s baby (Chapter 12)

5. By the pink scar on his calf (Chapter 14)

6. Because he must die before Achilles dies (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. Thetis summons Achilles to train with Chiron in Pelion. Patroclus decides to secretly leave Phthia and follow Achilles. (Chapters 7-8)

2. Chiron says that Achilles is “the greatest warrior of [his] generation and all the generations before.” He says Patroclus can be a “competent soldier” with enough training. (Chapter 9)

3. Achilles and Patroclus spend their early teenage years with Chiron, who teaches them about the surrounding world. The two boys spend all their time together, exploring and learning about each other. As they reach sixteen, their friendship has blossomed into something more intimate, and they share their first sexual experience. (Chapters 8-10)

4. As a young boy in Tyndareus’s citadel, he swore an oath to protect Helen. He is still bound by this oath now that she has been kidnapped. (Chapter 11)

5. Thetis brings Achilles to the island of Scyros and disguises him as a woman so he can remain hidden from the war. When Patroclus finds Achilles, he learns that Thetis had her son secretly wedded to Princess Deidameia. (Chapter 12)

6. Odysseus and Diomedes sail to Scyros to convince Achilles to lead the Greek armies against the Trojans and remind Patroclus of his oath to Helen. Odysseus tells Achilles and Thetis that if he does not go to Troy, he will lose his “godhead” and renown as a warrior. Additionally, Thetis reveals that if he goes to Troy, he will never return. (Chapter 15)

Chapters 16-24

Reading Check

1. Aristos Archaion (e.g., “best of the greeks”) (Chapter 16)

2. She believes she will be married to Achilles. She is sacrificed instead. (Chapter 17)

3. Ajax (Chapter 20)

4. The gods are “‘fighting with each other, taking sides in the war.’” (Chapter 23)

5. Surgery and medicine (Chapter 23)

Short Answer

1. As they prepare to sail, there is no wind. After months of waiting, they learn that the goddess Artemis demands a sacrifice before they sail, and Agamemnon offers his daughter Iphigenia. (Chapter 18)

2. The Greek armies plan to raid the surrounding areas of Troy. They will attack the farmlands, kill the people who fought back and enslave others, including the women, for personal gain. After the raids begin, Troy’s citadel walls remain closed. (Chapter 20)

3. Briseis is a captured girl who Achilles saves from potential sexual slavery. Patroclus and Briseis spend their days together while Achilles fights, teaching each other their languages. (Chapter 21)

4. During one of the raids, Achilles kills Hector’s wife’s family. He leaves one son alive to preserve the family line. (Chapter 23)

5. Four years into the war, the Greeks question their fighting purpose. As the soldiers begin a mutiny against Agamemnon, Achilles makes a speech on the riches of Troy and the importance of showing the Trojans their strength. After this, there are no more mutinies. (Chapter 24)

Chapters 25-33

Reading Check

1. That he will no longer fight for the Greek armies (Chapter 25)

2. Due to the disagreement between Agamemnon and Achilles, Patroclus lost Briseis to Agamemnon. (Chapter 26)

3. Sarpedon (Chapter 30)

4. Achilles (Chapter 30)

5. Pyrrhus, Achilles’s son with Deidameia (Chapter 31)

6. She adds Patroclus’s name to the tombstone where he is buried with Achilles. (Chapter 33)

Short Answer

1. Agamemnon takes Chryseis, Chryses’s daughter, as his sex slave. Chryses comes the next day to ransom for his daughter, which Agamemnon denies. As a result, Chryses summons a plague from the gods to torment the Greek armies. (Chapter 25)

2. Thetis believes that Zeus will support her idea to make the Greek armies continue to lose until they beg for Achilles to return. (Chapter 27)

3. Patroclus offers to dress as Achilles and ride in his chariot on the battlefield. Although he will not be fighting, he will give the impression that Achilles is returning to battle and will ultimately win back the favor of the Greek armies. Achilles is hesitant but agrees with Patroclus’s plan. (Chapter 30)

4. Enraged and blinded by grief, Achilles searches for Hector to kill him, fighting the river Scamander and following him around the citadel ceaselessly. Finally, he kills Hector without honoring the man’s last request. (Chapter 31)

5. Pyrrhus denies Odysseus’s message that Patroclus’s name should be alongside Achilles’s name on the tombstone. This denial means that Patroclus has not had a good burial and cannot join Achilles in the underworld. (Chapter 32)