History Characters / TheSongOfAchilles

* LovingAShadow: Platonic version for Achilles, and *playedwith, as Pyrrhus doesn't seem to be capable of real love). Pyrrhus seems to have a very high opinion of his father as an abstract concept, but doesn't know anything about him as a person. In regards to his request to be buried with Patroclus, Pyrrhus speaks only of his fathers honour, never of his wishes or feelings. His refusal to make a memorial to both him and Patroclus as he wished or his decision to make a human sacrifice on top of it both would upset and disgust his father.

* LovingAShadow: Platonic version for Achilles (also *PlayedWith as Pyrrhus doesn't seem to be capable of real love). Pyrrhus seems to have a very high opinion of his father as an abstract concept, but doesn't know anything about him as a person. In regards to his request to be buried with Patroclus, Pyrrhus speaks only of his fathers honour, never of his wishes or feelings. His refusal to make a memorial to both him and Patroclus as he wished or his decision to make a human sacrifice on top of it both would upset and disgust his father.

* TheNeidermeyer: Downplayed; Agamemnon isn't ''hated'' by his men, nor is he cowardly or incompetent, he is just not revered the way Achilles is, nor as brilliant as Odysseus, and his own massive ego cause huge problems for everyone. This insecurity causes him to come dangerously close to becoming this trope fully, and he is very lucky that Achilles' own hubris and stupidity cause him to overreach and disgrace himself first.

Achilles' son with Deidamia. He is taken by Thetis to be raised in the underwater caverns.

* EvilCounterpart: Pyrrhus to his father Achilles, as they both share their supernatural athleticism and power and a desire to become famous. Achilles is somewhat disconnected from human morality, but thanks to Patroclus acting as a MoralityPet and the limited relation to his mother, having been raised among humans, he is still a good person at heart. Pyrrhus, who has no one like Patroclus and was raised by his grandmother in the underwater caves, is a violent, sociopathic GloryHound that only cares about satisfying his lust and becoming a hero with praise lavished upon him.

* LovingAShadow: Platonic version for Achilles. Pyrrhus seems to have a very high opinion of his father, but doesn't know anything about him as a person. His refusal to make a memorial to both him and Patroclus as he wished or his decision to make a human sacrifice on top of it both would upset and disgust his father, had him known anything about him.

* GenreSavvy: Achilles and Patroclus delay Achilles' death significantly and play with the prophecy's ambiguities about the timing, but neither of them entertain the hope that they can get around it and leave Troy with Achilles alive. This is pretty wise of them, since in Greek mythology the prophecies are never wrong, just occasionally misleading as hell.

* AmbiguouslyBi: Though Patroclus loves Achilles unconditionally, his attachment to Briseis seems a little more than platonic. (For instance, he fantasizes about having a child with her.) He also has sex with a woman at one point, and, while he is not romantically attracted to her, he does admit that he finds her body arousing.

* GenreSavvy: Achilles and Patroclus delay Achillies death significantly and play with the prophecies ambiguities about the timing, but neither of them entertain the hope that they can get around it and leave Troy with Achilles alive. This is pretty wise of them, as in Greek mythology prophecies are never wrong, just occasionally misleading as hell.

* AllForNothing: Kind of subverted, because it's not exactly for nothing; Achilles gets exactly what the gods promised him. He's the greatest warrior the Greeks ever had, and he becomes so famous that we're still talking about him 3000 years later - but by the end of the novel it's clear that he'd trade every bit of glory he earned for one more minute with Patroclus.
Later in the Odyssey (and in Madeline Millers second novel, Circe), Odysseus travels into the Underworld where he meets Achilles ghost, and Achilles says he regrets living to pridefully and that he would rather be alive as a serf than be the most revered dead man there is.

* UsedToBeASweetKid: When we first meet Achilles as a child he's honest, cheerful, sweet natured and although he's fairly self-absorbed, there's no malice in him. After ten years of war where he's triumphed effortlessly over everyone he meets and all of the Greeks are constantly fawning over how great he is, his pride has grown into a monster that he will put before every single Greek life except one. He is also willing to let Agamemnon rape Briseis just so he will have an excuse to kill him, when earlier in the war tried to protect her and other women, and seemed somewhat ashamed of having hurt the innocent by killing their families.

* EvilCounterpart: Pyrrhus to his father Achilles, as they both share their supernatural athleticism and power and a desire to become famous. Achilles is somewhat disconnected from human morality, but thanks to Patroclus acting as a MoralityPet and the limited relation to his mother, having been raised among humans, he is still a good person at heart. Pyrrhus, who has no one like Patroclus and was raised by his grandmother in the underwater caves, is a violent, sociopathic GloryHound that only cares about satisfying his lust and becoming a hero with praise lavishing on him.

* HateSink: A sociopathic GloryHound whose foul tactics put off even the desensitized Greek leaders. His dismissal of Patroclus also almost stops him and Achilles to meet again in death.
* LovingAShadow: Platonic version for his father. He seems to have a very high opinion of his father, but doesn't know anything about him as a person. His refusal to make a memorial to both him and Patroclus as he wished or his decision to make a human sacrifice on top of it both would upset and disgust his father, had him known anything about him.

* AscendedExtra: Briseis is also given a larger role in the story as the voice of the women who were claimed by Achilles to avoid being raped by the other Greek warriors.

* SensitiveGuyAndManlyMan: Patroclus dislikes fighting and violence; he is often empathetic to other people's needs and is known for his kindness. Achilles is the physically more able of the two and a model warrior.

* IronicName: "Patroclus" means "Father's Glory" - ironic because Patroclus is the biggest possible disappointment to his father.

* AmbiguousSituation: Did he do something to make Patroclus try to climb the walls of Troy? It's left unclear how much he was involved in Patroclus final acts.

* EvilCounterpart: Pyrrhus to his father Achilles, as they both share their supernatural athleticism and power and a desire to become famous. Achilles is somewhat disconnected from human morality, but thanks to Patroclus acting as a MoralityPet and the limited relation to his mother, having been raised among humans, he is still a good person at heart. Pyrrhus, who has no one like Patroclus and was raised by his mother in the underwater caves, is a violent, sociopathic GloryHound that only cares about satisfying his lust and becoming a hero with praise lavishing on him.

* DesecratingTheDead: One of the most famous examples in fiction is repeated in this retelling. Once Achilles kills him and still in a blind rage, he drags Hector's body in the back of his car.

[[folder:Agamnemon]]

* MyPeopleDothProtestTooMuch: Although it's only brought up once, in passing, Chiron considers other centaurs to be barbarians. This is due to Chiron [[OurCentaursAreDifferent not actually being related to other centaurs]], being a fully divine son of Cronus while the other centaurs were fathered by a mortal man.

* TheAce: Achilles was prophesied to be the greatest warrior of his generation, and by the time he's a teenager, despite being largely self-taught, Chiron - who trained the likes of Heracles - readily pronounces him as the greatest warrior alive.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: He only appears physically twice in the story in brief scenes, though he is mentioned once more, but his presence and actions, although distant, are central to the plot, being behind the plague that caused the rift between Agamnemon and Achilles, as well as involved in the death of the two main characters.

* AscendedExtra: Patroclus, who was not one of the truly major characters in the Illiad, is the narrator of the book and a central character. Briseis is also given a larger role in the story as the voice of the women who were claimed by Achilles to avoid being raped by the other Greek warriors.

* TheUnfavorite: While Thetis raised him, by the end of his life, Pyrrhus was simultaneously a massive dissapointment and a frightening sociopath. The final moments of the book heavily hint that even her was scared by the kind of person her grandson had become and much preferred Achilles.

* AudienceSurrogate: Played with in a meta sense. In the end of the novel, she asks Patroclus to tell her about Achilles, to which she respondes by telling her everything (which means the content of the book the reader just went through), making her experience the same story the reader has just about finished reading.

* TheUnfavorite: While Thetis raised him, by the end of his life, Pyrrhus was simultaneously a massive disapointment and a frightening sociopath. The final moments of the book heavily hint that even her was scared by the kind of person her grandson had become and much preferred Achilles.

[[folder:Phyrrus]]