Some things need to be said (Part 2)
2ĀŗĀ About Achilles and Patroclus, bi-erasure and YES, IāM TALKING ABOUT THE SONG OF ACHILLES.
Okay, I have just read a post saying The Song of Achilles is the best adaptation because it portrays the real personality of Achilles AND IāM SO FUCKING MAD. I have so many problems with that book, mainly about itās treatment of Thetis, of Briseis, of Achilles and of Patroclus, which is just maddening. Of course, Iām not hating on the readers, everyone is free to like whatever they read. But, please, donāt take it as exactly what happens in the Iliad.
Letās be fair. Were Achilles and Patroclus lovers? Yes, of course they were. And itās a shame most movies ignore the fact that he loved men too only because of homophobia. But, was Achilles gay? NO. NOT AT ALL. First of all, because Greek conceptions of sexuality were very different from us and the idea of a man only feeling attracted to a gender was not something very common. In fact, most heroes (Hercules, Achilles, and, yes, most buddies from the Iliad, including Agamemnon) had sex with both men and women. Second, because if we tried to adapt him to modern concepts of sexuality, he is bi. He is totally bisexual. HE IS A CHAOTIC BISEXUAL. He had love stories as chaotic as his personality with Deidamia, Penthesilea, Polyxena and Briseis, all women, but also with Patroclus and Antilochus, which were men. If you ask me, he also had a huge amount of sexual tension with Hector, but thatās not important.
This brings me to the next question. Was Achilles loyal to Patroclus? Nop. Not at all. And I donāt think Patroclus was very concerned by this either. Briseis herself says in the Iliad that Patroclus promised her to convince Achilles to marry her and quit having a slave status. Because, oh, yeah, Briseis was a slave, she had three brothers who were killed in the sack of Lynerssus lead by Achilles and she was made a concubine, a sex slave.
Letās all say it together. Probably all men in the Iliad were rapists since it was custom for greek soldiers to take women as slaves in wars. It wasnāt portrayed as bad or something horrible by Homer, neither as good or something worth of praise, just as a NORMAL THING. Just so you know, in Song of Achilles, he is super good with his slaves and never has sex with them because of his love with Patroclus. Which did not happen AT ALL. And I think it was here when I truly began to hate the book. Because undermining women suffering just to make a man more likable happens too much in real life, I donāt need it in fiction.
Iām not saying Achilles is evil. But he isnāt exactly a hero in shinning armour. He is a fucking pain in the ass most times. He is arrogant, has NO FUCKING CHILL AT ALL and only feels things IN THE EXTREME. He doesnāt simply feel angry, he kills every Trojan he sees claiming for Hector to fight him, fills rivers with corpses and drags his nemesis body around a city for days. He is not just sad, he covers his hair in sand, refuses to eat and tries to throws himself to sword to die. He is a very tragic hero, with his huge amount of shortcomings but also a terrible fate he doesnāt know how to deal with. He is not a villain.
AND NEITHER IS THETIS. C'MON, THIS WAS JUST OFFENSIVE. She was not a bad mother, she did everything she would to save her son, making every part of his body invulnerable by dipping him in the River Styx (except for, you know, the heel). Also, what the hell, she didnāt try to get between Achilles and Patroclus, in fact nobody did! Nobody refused to bury Patroclus, they all loved him and praised him as a good soldier. Because, hell yeah, Patroclus was a soldier, not a doctor, and he was a prince, not a commoner. And he wasnāt deemed as unuseful in battle, HE KILLED MUCH MORE PEOPLE THAN MENELAUS OR ODYSSEUS EVER DID. Thereās no need to create a power imbalance between Achilles and Patroclus!. And thereās no fucking need for another āus against the worldā story! In fact, why would you do it, when itās much more beautiful to have two men loving each other and the rest of their buddies totally approving as it should be?
And, just to end, why nobody mentions Achilles incredible speed? Speed is fucking cool, donāt ignore this greek Flash.
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