Quotes from Madeline Miller

When I was young, I overheard our palace surgeon talking. He said that the medicines he sold were only for show. Most hurts heal by themselves, he said, if you give them enough time. It was the sort of secret I loved to discover, for it made me feel cynical and wise. I took it for a philosophy.

I did not have to fear that I spoke too much. I did not have to worry that I was too slender or too slow.

His eyes narrowed, and I could see the reflexive 'no' in them. I would come to know this type of man, jealous of his little power, to whom I was only a woman.

Sons were not punished.

La presencia de los otros chicos no me aportaba consuelo alguno: nuestros muertos acuden en pos de su venganza sin considerar la presencia de testigos. En el firmamento cobraron forma las estrellas y la luna ocupó su sitio. Cuando los párpados se me cerraron, él me seguía esperando, cubierto de sangre y blanco como la cal, claro que sí. Nadie desea acabar en la negrura sin fin del aveno antes de tiempo. Mi exilio podría aplacar la ira de los vivos, pero no la de los difuntos.

Ve con cuidado —me instó. —Lo haré. Había mucho más por decir, mas, por una vez, no lo dijimos. Habría otras ocasiones para hablar, por la noche, y al día siguiente, y todos los días venideros. Me soltó la mano.

But of course: our stories had many characters. Great Perseus or modest Peleus. Heracles or almost-forgotten Hylas. Some had a whole epic, others just a verse.

Skops, Peleus took to calling me. Owl, for my big eyes.

What about me?" I asked. Chiron's dark eyes moved to rest on mine. "You will never gain fame from your fighting. Is this surprising to you?

When he was gone, would I be like Achilles, wailing over his lost lover Patroclus? 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 for the loss of half my soul.

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.

El gajo de la luna se empequeñeció más y más, pero yo seguí mirándola incluso cuando se me entornaron los párpados para sentir el brillo azafranado de su figura sobre los párpados.

Sentí de nuevo esa sensación de puro equilibrio donde el mundo se había detenido y todo estaba a la espera.

Those seconds, half-seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moment in my day that I felt anything at all

hunched against the tearing contraction. I had the willow

C'est la folie humaine que je trouve amusante.

Patroclo —dice—, Patroclo, Patroclo. Lo repite una y otra vez hasta que la palabra es solo un sonido. Ulises se arrodilla y le insta a comer y beber. Le invade una ira feroz al oír eso y está a punto de matarle, pero para eso debería dejarme y no puede. Me sujeta con tanta fuerza que casi noto el latido de su corazón, como el aleteo de una mariposa. Es un eco, el último jirón de mi espíritu aún sujeto a mi cuerpo. Un suplicio.

I did not mind anymore that I lost when we raced and I lost when we swam out to the rocks and I lost when we tossed spears or skipped stones. For who can be ashamed to lose to such beauty? It was enough to watch him win, to see the soles of his feet flashing as they kicked up sand, or the rise and fall of his shoulders as he pulled through the salt. It was enough.

As we swam, or played, or talked, a feeling would come. It was almost like fear, in the way it filled me, rising my chest. It was almost like tears, in how swiftly it came. But it was neither of those, buoyant where they were heavy, bright where they were dull.

Is she well?" "She is well. She wants to meet you." I felt a surge of fear, but stifled it. "Do you think I should?" I could not imagine what she would want with me. I knew her reputation for hating mortals.

La presencia de Aquiles era como una china en el zapato, imposible de pasar por alto. Tenía la piel del color del aceite de oliva recién prensado y era suave como la madera pulida, sin las cicatrices y magulladuras de que estábamos cubiertos los demás.

She was taller than I was, taller than any woman I had ever seen. Her black hair was loose down her back, and her skin shone luminous and impossibly pale, as if it drank light from the moon. She was so close I could smell her, seawater laced with dark brown honey. I did not breathe. I did not dare.

And I was pleased, because I felt that he had seen her, had understood why I spent my days with her when he was gone. She was one of us now, I thought. A member of our circle, for life.

Despite your wet-mouse weeping, I saw how you would not be ground into the earth. You loathed them as I did. I think it is where our power comes from.