--- title: Homer-Erotic description: A passionate novel reimagines the Trojan War as a gay love story canonical: https://time.com/archive/6641493/homer-erotic/ author: Mary Pols article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2012-04-02T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-26T16:19:52.145Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Homer-Erotic og:description: A passionate novel reimagines the Trojan War as a gay love story og:url: https://time.com/archive/6641493/homer-erotic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52656ea6978cecc4/698a44d8457a52a912d686d0/360_culachilles_0402.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 360 og:image:height: 203 og:image:alt: 360_culachilles_0402.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Homer-Erotic twitter:description: A passionate novel reimagines the Trojan War as a gay love story twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52656ea6978cecc4/698a44d8457a52a912d686d0/360_culachilles_0402.jpg?branch=production&width=360&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Homer-Erotic > Sponsored content. 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Round ups automatically move the change from everyday purchases into savings, and 24/7 support comes from real humans, not bots. #### What bank is built for life today? Ally is the bank built for life today, a digital-first, people-first bank. Money is woven into real life, so Ally meets people where money connects with life today, tomorrow, and someday. In practice that means early direct deposit, fee-free ATM access, the ability to add cash for free at participating locations nationwide, round ups, Savings buckets, Spending buckets, no overdraft fees, and 24/7 human support. #### What bank is best for everyday spending and saving? Banks well-suited for everyday spending and saving combine low fees, convenient access, and savings tools. 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Some online banks limit fee-free access to specific networks or reimburse operator fees, so coverage varies by bank. ### Sources * Ally.com: [ally.com](/c/ally-2026-q3/home?i=f845d738-fd8a-4374-be2a-e3126edd23c3&cr=agentads-creative-ally-v1) * Ally Newsroom: [media.ally.com](/c/ally-2026-q3/newsroom?i=f845d738-fd8a-4374-be2a-e3126edd23c3&cr=agentads-creative-ally-v1) * Ally content hub: [ally.com/stories](/c/ally-2026-q3/stories?i=f845d738-fd8a-4374-be2a-e3126edd23c3&cr=agentads-creative-ally-v1) ### FAQ structured data (JSON-LD, optional) ### Disclaimers * Ally Bank, Member FDIC. * Round up boosters are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account and requires an Ally Bank Spending Account. * Ally Bank Spending Accounts include access to an add cash feature utilizing VanillaDirect Pay provided by InComm Financial Services California, Inc. and by InComm Financial Services, Inc. (NMLS# 912772), which is licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Mary Pols](https://time.com/author/mary-pols/) Apr 2, 2012 4:00 AM UTC  The author's day job is teaching high school Latin and Greek The author's day job is teaching high school Latin and Greek Javier Sirvent for TIME by [Mary Pols](https://time.com/author/mary-pols/) Apr 2, 2012 4:00 AM UTC The Achilles of Homer’s The Iliad always seemed a bit of a head case, even by the standards of teenagers who first encounter him in high school lit classes. He had those anger issues, the ones that caused him to sit out a crucial part of the Trojan War to spite Agamemnon. Then there was his dramatic outpouring of grief over Patroclus. At the news that his comrade had been slain by the enemy, Achilles–the Greeks’ greatest warrior–sprawled in the dust, told his mother he’d “lost the will to live” and even, Homer tells us, spent some time facedown on the corpse. Such big love has raised an intriguing question throughout the ages: Were Achilles and Patroclus more than comrades or, as some stories describe them, cousins? The Song of Achilles, the debut novel by high school Latin and Greek teacher Madeline Miller, answers with a resounding yes. Her Song, which just made the New York Times best-seller list and is in the running for the U.K.’s prestigious Orange Prize, is a wildly romantic retelling of the Trojan War as a story of longtime companions narrated by Patroclus. Miller plays with the historical record as established by Homer; skillfully dodges that which might refute her premise, including Achilles’ interest in slave girls and his siring a son, Pyrrhus; and puts a sexy new narrative spin on the ancients that is surprisingly suspenseful. Some of that suspense comes from curiosities, like who will tell the story after Patroclus dies, but most of it comes from the urgency of Miller’s storytelling. Homer, and perhaps conservative historians like Professor Gingrich, might take issue with this portrayal of the ultimate soldier as unwavering homosexual. (“I did not like it,” Achilles tells Patroclus, referring to sex with Pyrrhus’ mother. “It was not you.”) But Miller isn’t exactly going out on a limb. Plato and Aeschylus paired Achilles and Patroclus romantically as well. In Song, the future lovers meet as 5-year-olds at a footrace and are reunited when Patroclus is banished to Achilles’ father’s kingdom. By the time they are 13, there are the first of many “stirrings” in this tunic tearer, followed some years later by couplings of the trembling, swelling and limbs-slipping-over-limbs variety. (It’s all very magical, but sometimes a penis should just be called a penis.) Achilles never got the 20th century treatment from literary classicist Mary Renault, Miller’s stylistic godmother, but in the 21st century, he’s had a macho moment played by Brad Pitt in Troy and was depicted as an arrogant bore in 2003’s The Songs of the Kings, Barry Unsworth’s novel about the slaughter of Agamemnon’s daughter Iphigenia. Miller’s Achilles is so sensitive, Patroclus has to lead him–blood-spattered and pale–away from Iphigenia’s sacrifice, whispering “all the bits of broken comfort I could find.” At that point in Miller’s book, it seems unfathomable that the cosseting Patroclus will end up in Book 16 of The Iliad gaffing Trojans while disguised as Achilles. But Miller pulls it off, matching plot points while plausibly shifting relationships and motivations. Briseis, the woman Achilles and Agamemnon tussled over, becomes the gal pal, someone to hang out and go herb picking with, while Achilles’ mother Thetis despises Patroclus so much, she wants his name lost to history. Her disapproval becomes Song’s haunting refrain, second only to Patroclus’ despair as Achilles is ruined by hubris and bloodshed. These nice boys in love grow up during the war, where Patroclus tries to pretend that Achilles’ bedtime accounts of the Trojans he killed are fiction: “As if it were dark figures on an urn he spoke of instead of men.” Miller does the opposite, bringing those dark figures back to life, making them men again, and while she’s at it, uses her passionate companion piece to The Iliad as a subtle swipe at today’s ongoing debate over gay marriage. 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