Quotes from Madeline Miller

Achilles' miracle was his speed.

For millennia there have been men who react with horror and disgust to women's independence, men who desire women yet hate them, and who take refuge in fantasies of purity and control. What would it be like to live with such a man as your husband? There are too many today who could answer that. But that is the mark of a good source myth; it is water so wide it can reach across centuries. I hope you enjoyed the swim.

I saw the picture of it in his eyes: the great captain walking to him across the fields of asphodel. He would kneel on smoky knees, and Odysseus would gesture him up. They would dwell side by side in the house of the dead. Side by side, where I could never go.

Du trauerst nicht um deinen Vater? - Doch. Ich betrauere, dass ich nie den Vater kennengelernt habe, von dem mir alle erzählen.

A su muerte, Aquiles enterraría con él todas las cosas veloces, hermosas y luminosas.

mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean that we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive.

But then I see the tomb, and the marks she has made on the stone. A C H I L L E S, it reads. And beside it, P A T R O C L U S.

But even I could not fill each minute with fear. I have heard that men who live by a waterfall cease to hear it—in such a way did I learn to live beside the rushing torrent of his doom. The days passed, and he lived. Two months passed, and I could go a whole day without looking over the precipice of his death.

They would return Helen, or we would get to fight for her properly, in the field.

Idylle hatte ich unsere gemeinsame Zeit bezeichnet. Illusion hätte es vielleicht besser getroffen.

Lo guardavo dalla finestra e mi tornava in mente una storia che una volta mi aveva raccontato su un grosso serpente in cui gli uomini del nord credono, la cui brama è quella di divorare il mondo." Ricordavo anche io quella storia. Alla fine, il serpente divora se stesso.

There is no law that gods must be fair,

War breeds many sins (…)

Aquiles estaba lleno de gracia, como una bendición, y los hombres alzaban los rostros hacia él como los fieles se orientan hacía un sacerdote.

The man smiled. "I was not invited. I interrupted.

Zwei Kinder hatte er gehabt, und keins davon hatte er klar erkannt. Aber vielleicht können Eltern ihre Kinder nicht wirklich sehen. Wenn wir hinsehen, sehen wir nur das Spiegelbild unserer eigenen Fehler.

Patroclus. A voice like music, above me. I look up to see a man leaning on the walls as if sunning, dark hair to his shoulders, a quiver and bow slung casually around his torso. Startled, I slip a little, my knees scraping the rock. He is piercingly beautiful, smooth skin and a finely cut face that glows with something more than human. Black eyes. Apollo.

For three weeks the earth would paint herself in every color, burst every bud, unfurl each rioting petal. Then, the wild flush of her excitement spent, she would settle down to the steady work of summer. It was my favorite time of year.

Achilles smiles as his face strikes the earth.

I tried to picture myself running up and down the beaches, tearing at my hair, cradling some scrap of old tunic he had left behind. Crying out for the loss of half my soul. I could not see it. That knowledge brought its own sort of pain. But perhaps that is how it was meant to be.

It made me dizzy to realize that this was but a fraction of a fraction of all the men the world had bred. How could such variation endure, such endless iteration of minds and faces? Did the earth not go mad?

Une cage dorée restera toujours une cage

hire him to enlarge their houses. He would arrive with his tools, begin taking down the walls, pulling up the floors. But whenever he found some problem underneath that must first be fixed, they frowned. That was not in the agreement! Of course not, he said, it has been hidden in the foundation, but look, there it is, plain as day.

feet, the guards' heads jerked towards the door.