The Iliad, which relays the myth of the Trojan War, follows the tail end of the Greek army’s ten-year siege on Troy. The Song of Achilles is directly inspired by Homer’s Iliad-the novel retells The Iliad’s events. Though Miller’s novel focuses mostly on the war’s human actors, the Greek gods-including Zeus, Athena, Artemis, and Apollo-are significant players, able to nudge conflicts along with their unique skills. The war provided fodder for Greco-Roman mythology, and poets like Virgil and Ovid would also cover its events. Regardless, her husband Menelaus then assembled an army to retrieve her from Troy, beginning a ten-year siege that would only end in trickery: the Greeks eventually entered Troy by hiding inside the now-infamous “Trojan horse.” Along the way, heroes fell, including Achilles, the subject of Madeline Miller’s novel. Some myths suggest that she went with Paris willingly due to interference from the gods who were quarreling with each other, while other suggest that she was abducted by force. The war began when Paris, a Trojan prince, stole the Spartan princess Helen, who was known to be the most beautiful woman in Greece. The Song of Achilles follows the events of the Trojan War, a fictional (but significant) conflict in Greek mythology. Miller lives outside Philadelphia and continues to write and teach. Miller’s second novel, Circe, was released in 2018 it’s narrated from the perspective of Circe, a minor character from The Odyssey. In 2012, the book received the Orange Prize for Fiction. The book was ten years in the making, as Miller drafted and redrafted to focus the story’s narration.
Miller wanted to retell the Trojan War with a particular focus on Achilles and Patroclus the two are commonly interpreted as lovers, but their romantic relationship is peripheral in most Greco-Roman myths of the Trojan War. She published her first book, The Song of Achilles, in 2011. Then she received an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where she focused on adapting classics for modern audiences. After completing her undergraduate and graduate work in Classics at Brown University, she taught and tutored high school students in Greek, Latin, and Shakespeare. Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in both Philadelphia and New York City.
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