The Song of Achilles

They dock in Phthia the next day. The shore is full of onlookers, screaming Achilles’s name and “Aristos Achaion!” Patroclus thinks that this moment is when their lives will change—he understands the grandness that will always follow Achilles now that he’s chosen to be a legend. Peleus greets his son, saying that he’ll lead the army to glory and return triumphant. Patroclus knows Achilles won’t return, but Peleus doesn’t. Achilles is stunned but pleased by the crowd’s attention. He  looks older, Patroclus thinks.

Patroclus quickly realizes that Achilles is no longer just his. Everyone wants a piece of him. When he speaks to an onlooker, his vividness makes that onlooker heroic. Achilles defers most war matters to Phoinix, who will come to Troy with them, and he often asks Patroclus’s opinion. But Patroclus hangs in the back, silent. He sees the crowd’s dreams of triumph and knows that triumph is impossible for him and Achilles. He begins to hide in the palace, imagining Achilles’s potential deaths: a spear fight, a smashed chariot.

Patroclus asks Achilles how he’s going to tell Peleus about the prophecy. Achilles says that he won’t—it would only hurt him to know. He reveals that back in Scyros, he asked Thetis not to tell Peleus, either. He also asked her to protect Patroclus after his death, and he admits, ashamed, that she said no. The fact that he asked comforts Patroclus, who has felt somewhat adrift. He doesn’t care that Thetis won’t protect him. He doesn’t plan to live after Achilles is gone.

Over the next six weeks, they continue to plan the war’s logistics. Peleus gives Achilles many supplies, including a charioteer, Automedon, a boy even younger than Achilles and Patroclus. He also gives Achilles an ash spear—it was a gift from Chiron. It would have taken Chiron weeks to sculpt, and Patroclus realizes that Chiron started it the day they left Pelion. Maybe he knew Achilles’s destiny. Or maybe he just assumed what would happen, the result of wisdom built up by watching student after student die: all trained in music and medicine, all “unleashed for murder.” But the spear is made from love, not bitterness—it’s specifically designed for Achilles and couldn’t suit anyone else. The point is sharp and deadly, but the wood itself is slippery, like a lyre.

Finally, the departure day arrives. The Phthians have a fleet of fifty ships, a whole city of wood. Achilles wears his purple cloak, and the crowd cheers about glory and gold. Peleus waves from shore. Achilles didn’t tell him about the prophecy, just hugged him. Patroclus hugs Peleus, too, and thinks that this is how Achilles will feel when he’s old. Then he remembers that he’ll never be old. The ships set sail, bound for Troy.