The Song of Achilles

Fandom
Name:	The Song of Achilles
Abbreviation(s):	TSOA
Creator:	Madeline Miller
Date(s):	2012
Medium:	Historical Fiction
Country of Origin:	USA
External Links:	http://www.madelinemiller.com/the-song-of-achilles/
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The Song of Achilles is a historial fiction novel by Madeline Miller. It tells the story of Achilles, as seen through the eyes of Patroclus, his childhood friend and lover. As it is a retelling of Homer's The Iliad, the events featured in TSOA are largely the same as the original, culminating in Achilles and Patroclus fighting in the Trojan War.

Fandom

The fandom is a small but devoted rarelit fandom which is mainly focused on the Patroclus/Achilles relationship. Because of the tragic nature of the story, the Tumblr tag for the book not only features fanworks, but also reactions from readers who have just finished the book for the first time.

As it shares characters and stories, The Song of Achilles fandom often overlaps with Greek mythology, The Iliad, and Troy fandoms.

Ships

Shippy TSOA content almost exclusively focuses on Achilles and Patroclus, known as Patrochilles. Out of the over 1,250 fanworks published on Archive of Our Own in July 2021, only about 65 did not feature Patrochilles as a pairing and of those, many were crossovers with other characters as reincarnated versions of Patrochilles

Tropes

There are several recurring tropes and imagery in TSOA fanworks. Some of which are:

• Modern AU - Regardless of if it's College AU, Highschool AU or Roommate AU, one of the main tropes is placing the characters in the current day.
• Reincarnation - Often combined with Modern AU, but the characters usually have some fragmented memory of their original lives together.
• Afterlife - If you're familiar with the original story, it probably comes as no surprise that there is a good amount of fics focusing on the characters in the afterlife.

• Figs - Popular both in artwork and fanfiction curtesy of Achilles eating them in a one of the scenes in the book.
• Armor - Artwork often features armor like the one worn by Achilles, and later donned by Patroclus.

Quotes

As with most lit-fandoms, a lot of the content created by the fandom highlights quotes from the book. Other common creations are moodboards and aesthetic photography featuring the book.

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  Screenshot of a quote.

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  Photograph of a quote.

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  Screenshot of a highlighted quote.

Fanworks

Fanart

• The Song of Achilles - color keys, ^{Archived version} by when-the-bricks-are-down, panels for many scenes
• “Philtatos,” Achilles replied, sharply. Most beloved.”, ^{Archived version} by alessiajontrunfio
• Book Cover, ^{Archived version} by pigeon-princess
• ‘perhaps it is the greatest grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone’, ^{Archived version} by doesarts
• “A scream comes, tearing its way out. And then another, and another.”, ^{Archived version} by alessiajontrunfio
• Patroclus and Achilles as portrayed in The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, ^{Archived version} by aliceblakeart
• Achilles x Patroclus, ^{Archived version} by emeldraws

Graphics and Gif Sets

• the song of achilles, ^{Archived version} graphics by jemwilliam
• The Song of Achilles - A Netflix Original Series, ^{Archived version} gif set by skylessnights
• Posters, ^{Archived version} by chaghanaltan

Zines

• Made of Memories - A Patrochilles digital charity zine. Published in 2018.
• Unconditional, multimedia zine with other book fandoms

Example Art Gallery

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  Art by Venessa Kelley (2020)

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  Song of Achilles edit by droo216 (2021)

Fannish Resources

• Works tagged The Song of Achilles on the Archive of Our Own
• The Song of Achilles and tsoa tags on Tumblr