As the novel is based on the Illiad, pretty much everything that happens in it is a Foregone Conclusion. It's a testament to Miller's writing skills and incredible characterisation that there are handful of scenes that break your heart anyway.
Warning: All spoilers will be unmarked, so read at your own risk.
- Anything and everything related to Patroclus' death
- Since Achilles isn't fated to die until after he has slain Hector, he repeatedly brushes off questions of when he will fight Hector with "What has Hector ever done to me?" It's literally Tempting Fate, considering the Fates delivered the prophecy in the first place.
- Briseis declaring Patroclus "the best of the Myrmidons", unknowingly echoing Thetis' prophecy. All readers know Patroclus must die, but to read how many times it's foreshadowed hits harder each time.
- As Patroclus is being surrounded by Trojans, he doesn't care about his own life and death at all. He desperately resists Hector not because he's afraid Hector will kill him, but because Hector killing him will result in the fulfilling of a prophecy that signaled Achilles' death. His last thought before he dies is literally 'Achilles'.
- Achilles' utter grief and rage as he's pushed into a Despair Event Horizon so strong that he becomes a Death Seeker and completely gives up on his dreams of being a hero, something that had been his main motivation throughout the entire novel and that he gave up any hope of a long life for.
- Briseis cleaning Patroclus' body and screaming that Achilles wasn't the only one that loved him. Her stand-off with Achilles is equal parts awesome and heartbreaking. Made worse when he agrees with her.
- Achilles refuses to hold Patroclus' funeral, choosing instead to keep his body in bed with him, clinging to it and crying over it even as it begins to rot. Patroclus has to personally plead with Achilles to bury him so he won't be caught between life and death any longer before Achilles is willing to burn Patroclus' body.
- Deidameia. Yes, she's selfish and petty, but she loses first her husband, then her child and in the end has nothing left.
- Lycomedes watching his daughter suffer and not being able to do anything about it because he's being threatened by a goddess. I wish you had never come.
- As in the original source, Priam's Moment of Awesome. He walks into the Greek camp alone, lays himself at Achilles feet and begs for the body of his son. Achilles is incredibly moved and the two even briefly bond over shared grief and loss. Priam's humble request is all the more powerful as a contrast to the pride and anger that is the focus of the story.
- Briseis and Patroclus's relationship is it's own sort of tragedy. In the Illiad they are genuinely fond and caring towards each other. In TSOA, by his own admission, Patroclus would've been happy to marry and have children with her, had he never met Achilles. On the other hand, Briseis falls in love with his sweet and gentle demeanor after he saves her from a cruel fate in the war camp, and remains in love with him years later despite his gentle rejection. In the end they both die uncertain of the other's fate.
- Briseis' death scene is heart breaking. Pyrrhus claims her as his property once he arrives to help finish the war, and when she tries to request that Patroclus' name be added to Achilles' grave, he cruelly refuses and plans to punish her for her 'lies' that his father loved such a pathetic man. In desperation she attacks him and races to the sea to try and escape; as she's an excellent swimmer she almost gets away — but Pyrrhus scores a direct hit with his spear. Patroclus' shade can do nothing but watch and mourn, and since Briseis obviously doesn't get a burial either as her body is washed away by the ocean, he has no way of knowing what will happen to her ghost or whether she'll ever reach the afterlife and find rest.
- Thetis' entire relationship with her son is just a neverending chain of emotional manipulation and megalomania, but in the end it's shown that she does love Achilles in her own twisted way and that his death will always torment her.
- Especially if you interpret the fact that the reason she was always so intent on getting Achilles to become a god was because she wanted him to become immortal so they would never have to leave each other.
- At first it is strange. I am used to keeping him from her, to hoarding him for myself. But the memories well up like springwater, faster than I can hold them back. They do not come as words, but like dreams, rising as scent from the rain-wet earth. This, I say. This and this. The way his hair looked in summer sun. His face when he ran. His eyes, solemn as an owl at lessons...
- The final passages of the book are both truly touching and utterly heartbreaking. Patroclus and Thetis finally overcome their differences and talk about Achilles, who they both loved so dearly, culminating in Thetis carving Patroclus's name into the grave so they can finally be together in the afterlife.
