The other characters believe they understand what they need to do to save Achilles. They interfere with his will, and in the end, Achilles ends up exactly where he was prophesied to be.
As the characters attempt to control Achilles’ fate, they end up manifesting it. He’s doomed to die at Troy, something he chooses to ignore and proceed there anyway, against his mother’s wishes. Achilles is half-god and has, throughout the novel, an awareness of his own fate. He shares his memories of the man with Thetis, Achilles’ mother, showing a side of Achilles that the history books do not record.īelief comes into play as the characters deal with their fates, prophecies, and the Gods. In the end, Patroclus defines Achilles’ legacy far more than the latter’s actions do. Death was preferable to most Greeks over a loss of honor. The Greeks believe that honor is an integral part of life and that violence is sometimes (if not all the time) needed to prove one’s honor. Pride is also why Agamemnon gets so upset when Achilles saves Briseis from him. Characters like Achilles are fitting for their own honor and an attempt to establish a legacy, while characters like Agamemnon and Menelaus are fighting for pride (something they’ve lost a degree of when Helen is taken to Troy). These two themes come together in different ways. Below, readers can explore a few of the most important themes in ‘ The Song of Achilles.’
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