#just finished ch 10 of my tsoa reread

[azurejacques]

Chiron isn’t training Achilles and Patroclus to be heroes or better warriors or anything like that- he’s giving them them the boyhood- the life and opportunities denied to those fated to be heroes in the Homeric sense. Achilles is promised undwindling glory but has a most short-lived life. Patroclus is doomed to fall to Hector before Achilles can die. They will never get so do what they want to do, never explore their interests and passions, learn about the world and it’s beauty, learn empathy and respect for nature, learn to heal as well as harm, and be able to simply exist as people and not subjects of prophecies. And Chiron has the power to give that back to them, if even just for a moment. He teaches them those things- empathy, medicine, worldly knowledge, music, folklore, history, myth. I’m sure as shit he noticed the change after they both realized they had feelings for the other, but he didn’t say anything because of course he didn’t- when else would they be able to so innocently be in love and get to truly enjoy that beautiful part of life; without war and death and murder and guilt and prophecy and fear hanging over them?

He doesn’t teach them to be heroes—they already are— he teaches them to be people.