American Madeline Miller is a classics teacher who recently won the very prestigious Orange Prize for fiction at London’s Royal Festival Hall. She wrote her debut book “The Song of Achilles” on the life of the ancient Greek warrior and as some people claim, on his homosexual relation with Patroclus.
Her prize was accompanied by £30,000, a pretty good amount of money for such a young writer. She received the prize on May 30, stressing that she spent almost 10 years on this book.
The book tells the already known story of Patroclus and Achilles from a completely different point of view. The writer, who has been teaching Latin and Greek for several years, describes the life of the two legendary men, their hard everyday training, their common lives and the battles they shared very vividly.
But don’t think this is a common historic book. Homer told his story and now it’s the modern people’s turn to interpret it the way they believe is better. According to British Gay Times website, “exiled Patroclus was Achilles’ boyfriend.” “Miller wrote the book to counteract heterosexual misconceptions and to disencourage homophobia.”
The homosexual-orientated website adds that this book is “stunning and extremely well-written,” an opinion that many famous international critics share, as well.
But the Brits continue that “Homer never explicitly stated in the Iliad that Achilles was gay but often flirted with suggestive verb endings,” and conclude that “we know for a fact that Alexander The Great was inspired by the love story of Achilles and Patroclus when considering his own homosexuality.”
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