Review

I don’t recall thinking of Achilles as a likable character back in my HS days of reading Greek/Roman mythology. I recall him being arrogant, prideful, and too perfect. I don’t recall feeling sad for him or really caring about his story at all in the larger story of the Trojan War. Oh how this story changes all of that. Achilles is given an a human side where his arrogance and pride can be understood and to some extent forgiven, and where it seems unforgivable I’ve found pity him in his failings. Amazing how much more can come from the same story by framing it’s plot and characters just a bit differently.

It’s also interesting to me that while I remembered the names, if not the stories, of so many other characters, Patroclus I failed to remember at all. At this point I can’t do more the hmmm over that, but I suspect that is due to some careful selections of what we read & translated in my HS Latin class.