Quotes from Madeline Miller

There are no bargains between lions and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.

There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles," Chiron said. "And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth, when another is gone. Do you think?

I had never seen the age between them so clearly before. My keen son, and this man who chose to be no one.

Achilles' eyes were bright in the firelight, his face drawn sharply by the flickering shadows. I would know it in dark, or disguise. I told myself. I would know it even in madness.

We were all there, goddess and mortal and the boy who was both.

What had Deidameia thought would happen, I wondered, when she had her women dance for me? Had she really thought I would not know him? I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came, and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.

Her black eyes seem to contract, like dying stars. "I am glad that he is dead," she says. It is the last thing she will ever say to him.

Next time you're going to defy the gods, do it for a better reason.

his scorn was like a spark falling on dry tinder.

i would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world

It is like a tomb. This is what it will be, every day, without him.

he would sail to troy and i would follow him, even into death

I felt myself a stranger to the world

i could not stop imagining how it would end

Mi estrecho mundo había encogido un poco más hasta reducirse a las grietas del suelo y las volutas talladas en los muros de piedra.

He talked so often of longing for us and home. But it was lies. When he was back on Ithaca he was never content, always looking to the horizon. Once we were his again, he wanted something else. What is that if not a bad life? Luring others to you, then turning from them?

Pero ¿me perdonarás? —No necesito perdonarte. —Alargué la mano para coger la suya—. Tú no puedes ofenderme. —Hablé con cierta precipitación, pero con toda la convicción de mi corazón.

Fue extraño, pero me descubrí intentando no ser una decepción para él

Prometheus' words, deep-running as roots, had waited in me all this time. "We bear it as best we can," I said.

Las rígidas tiras de cuero se hundieron en la suave piel cuyos contornos yo había seguido con el dedo aquella misma noche. Las manos me temblaron, ávidas de deshacer las tensas correas y liberarle, pero no lo hice.

This, and this and this and this.

Je le reconnaîtrais rien qu'au toucher, ou à son odeur, je le reconnaîtrais si j'étais aveugle, aux seuls bruits de sa respiration et de ses pas martelant le sol. Je le reconnaîtrais dans la mort, à la fin du monde.

Sometimes you must be content with ignorance

Briséis, lui répondis-je. S'il meurt, je le suivrai de près.