Buddy Read for The Song of Achilles

[Shelly]

Having finished The Song of Achilles, I decided to pick up a copy of The Silence of the Girls today at the library.
Here is the first paragraph:
Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles....how the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things: we called him "the butcher."

Me thinks this book is going to present a very different view of Achilles!

[Theresa]

Shelly wrote: "Found this map of "Homeric Greece" with the names of the major players. This helped me a lot!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..."

That is great! I love a good map!

[Joanne]

Shelly wrote: "Found this map of "Homeric Greece" with the names of the major players. This helped me a lot!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of..."

I love a good map, and this was is a find! thanks for sharing!

[Sue]

I'm coming late to the discussion, but I finally finished.

I really enjoyed this. I'm familiar with the stories, but never read the Iliad. I may have to pick it up.

So am I the only one who saw Achilles as portrayed by Brad Pitt in the movie "Troy"?

[Booknblues]

I saw that movie.

[NancyJ]

Theresa wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "Theresa wrote: "Booknblues wrote: "Theresa wrote: " There is a section in the final third of the book, when they are all at Troy, that is just a bit too rainbows, puppies, and un..."

I gave Patroclus credit for all that, not Achilles. I think I saw him as having gentler sensibilities and therefore more feminine values. But I agree that it was inconsistent with the expectations of the other men.

[NancyJ]

Idit wrote: "The Iliad (I was surprised to find out) starts 9 years into the trojan war, just as Apollo sends the plague, Agamemnon has to return the young priestess he 'won' and demands to have Achilles prize ..."

That's interesting. Was there another major book that contained the first part of the story? Or did Miller take it from multiple stories and her imagination?

[Susie]

I wondered that too. The Silence of the Girls starts at the same time as The Iliad. I quite liked reading The Song afterwards. It was like reading a prequel.

[Karen]

I'm still chipping away at this. I think I'm at the point where the greatest two are going to xie before Achilles. I have't read the Illiad so am u familiar with the ztory. I rally liked Achilles in the beginning but I tell you, I coukd throw him in a pit without thinking twice right now.

[Theresa]

Karen wrote: "I'm still chipping away at this. I think I'm at the point where the greatest two are going to xie before Achilles. I have't read the Illiad so am u familiar with the ztory. I rally liked Achilles i..."
I remember feeling that way...

[Idit]

Karen wrote: "I'm still chipping away at this. I think I'm at the point where the greatest two are going to xie before Achilles. I have't read the Illiad so am u familiar with the ztory. I rally liked Achilles i..."

I tend to like the heroes of books I read and get attached to them, so I was into Achilles and was happy to forgive him anything. I'm almost worried about reading The Silence of the Girls because then I'd have to hate him (but I will)

[Idit]

from Wikipedia:
The Epic Cycle was a collection of Ancient Greek epic poems, composed in dactylic hexameter and related to the story of the Trojan War, including the Cypria, the Aethiopis, the so-called Little Iliad, the Iliupersis, the Nostoi, and the Telegony. Scholars sometimes include the two Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, among the poems of the Epic Cycle, but the term is more often used to specify the non-Homeric poems as distinct from the Homeric ones.

Unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey, the cyclic epics survive only in fragments and summaries from Late Antiquity and the Byzantine period.

Here's a list of them:

Cypria
The events leading up to the Trojan War and the first nine years of the conflict, especially the Judgement of Paris

Iliad
Achilles' rage against first king Agamemnon and then the Trojan prince Hector, ending with Achilles killing Hector in revenge for the death of Patroclus and Priam coming to Achilles to ransom Hector's body

Aethiopis
The arrival of the Trojan allies, Penthesileia the Amazon and Memnon; their deaths at Achilles' hands in revenge for the death of Antilochus; Achilles' own death

Little Iliad
Events after Achilles' death, including the building of the Trojan Horse and the Awarding of the Arms to Odysseus

Iliou persis ("Sack of Troy")
The destruction of Troy by the Greeks

Nostoi ("returns")
The return home of the Greek force and the events contingent upon their arrival, concluding with the returns of Agamemnon and Menelaus

Odyssey
The end of Odysseus' voyage home and his vengeance on his wife Penelope's suitors, who have devoured his property in his absence

Telegony
Odysseus' voyage to Thesprotia and return to Ithaca, and death at the hands of an illegitimate son Telegonus

... So she did mishmash of some of these stories, and other fragments and got the solid background to the iliad. It was great to get the full picture in Song of Achilles