When stories that are rooted deep in the public conciousness get retold, there is two good ways to do it: deviate wildly or stay completely and utterly true to the original. Madeline Miller chose to do the latter, and I have rarely seen it done that well. Every word resonates with the epocality of the story, to the point where it scares even the characters themselves. The author chose to stay as close to the original myth as it can be reconstructed, including the morals and mannerisms of Ancient Greece. This novel only deals in absolutes: absolute love, absolute commitment, absolute inevitability, absolute tragedy. That makes it more than a gay love story, more than a myth retelling. The characters, supposed heroes and godlikes, are flawed and deeply human and so very much like us, so much so that the story feels like a mirror to our own world and our own devotions. And if there is one universal truth to take away from the book, it is this: Every victory comes at a cost - and some are worth paying for, no matter how high the price.