The Song of Achilles
question
Why did Madeline Miller change the way Achilles died?
Grace
Jun 27, 2024 06:14PM
Did anyone else find it kind of weird that at the end of chapter 32, Achilles died via an arrow to his heart? I'm sure that we all have read the original Illiad and are familiar with the story of how an invincible soldier's only weak spot was his heel. So, you can imagine how surprised (and ultimately a little disappointed) when I found out that Achilles was struck in the heart rather than his heel. Does anyone know/have a guess why Madeline Miller changed such a small yet significant part of the story?
I think she had said somewhere that she wanted to emphasize how Patroclus was Achille's "heel".
She explained that herself at the end of the book!!
I got the Italian copy so I'll try to give the best translation: "The most famous myth about Achilles - the heel as the only fatally vulnerable point on his body - is actually a very late story. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Achilles is not invincible, he is just extraordinarily skilled in battle. But in the ages following Homer, many myths arose to explain Achilles' apparent invincibility. According to a very popular version, the goddess Thetis immerses Achilles in the river Styx to make him immortal, holding him by the heel; the trick works everywhere except where her hand covers. Since the Iliad and the Odyssey were my main sources of inspiration and since their interpretation seemed more realistic, I decided to follow the older tradition."
I got the Italian copy so I'll try to give the best translation: "The most famous myth about Achilles - the heel as the only fatally vulnerable point on his body - is actually a very late story. In the Iliad and the Odyssey, Achilles is not invincible, he is just extraordinarily skilled in battle. But in the ages following Homer, many myths arose to explain Achilles' apparent invincibility. According to a very popular version, the goddess Thetis immerses Achilles in the river Styx to make him immortal, holding him by the heel; the trick works everywhere except where her hand covers. Since the Iliad and the Odyssey were my main sources of inspiration and since their interpretation seemed more realistic, I decided to follow the older tradition."
Grace McKenney
Oh wow! I did't know that the heel thing was a newer adaptation of the original myth. That honestly makes Miller's ending so much better!
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I can only assume it was for dramatic effect more than anything like it would have probs been a bit anticlimactic and amusing even if the aristos achaion to only die from an arrow to the foot after he went on a killing spree and murdered mighty hector who is said to be the best of the Trojans to avenge his love
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Achilles: I will the one who killed Patroclus and all those who stand in my way
Also Achilles: oh no I’m dead
Paris shot my foot
Like
Achilles: I will the one who killed Patroclus and all those who stand in my way
Also Achilles: oh no I’m dead
Paris shot my foot
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Jul 08, 2024 02:05PM