Madeline Miller citations

Page 2

“… nothing could eclipse the stain of his dirty, mortal mediocrity.”

“Afterwards, when Agamemnon would ask him when he would confront the prince of Troy, he would smile his most guileless, maddening smile. “What has Hector ever done to me?”

“When I am dead, I charge you to mingle our ashes and bury us together.”

“Go," She says. "He waits for you.”

“Bury us, and mark our names above. Let us be free.”

“I almost did not come, because I did not want to leave it."
He smiled. "Now I know how to make you follow me everywhere."
The sun sank below Pelion's ridges, and we were happy.”

“A surety rose in me, lodged in my throat. I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.”

“He looked different in sleep, beautiful but cold as moonlight. I found myself wishing he would wake so that I might watch the life return.”

“Achilles weeps. He cradles me, and will not eat, nor speak a word other than my name.”

“The sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. When he died, all things swift and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”

“Her mouth was a gash of red, like the torn-open stomach of a sacrifice, bloody and oracular. Behind it her teeth shone sharp and white as bone.”

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

“This is what Achilles will feel like when he is old. And then I remembered: he will never be old.”

“There is this too.” His hand was ceaseless now. “I know I have told you of this.”

I closed my eyes. “Tell me again,” I said.”

“and when he moved it was like watching oil spread across a lake, smooth and fluid, almost vicious”

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

“The flames surround me, and I feel myself slipping further from life, thinning to only the faintest shiver in the air. I yearn for the darkness and silence of the underworld, where I can rest.”

“Divine blood flows differently in each god-born child.”

“Perhaps he simply assumed: a bitterness of habit, of boy after boy trained for music and medicine, and unleashed for murder.”

“Achilles makes a sound like choking. “There are no bargains between lions and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.” His spearpoint flies in a dark whirlwind, bright as the evening-star, to catch the hollow at Hector’s throat.”

“The sound was pure and sweet as water, bright as lemons.”

“The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered gleam of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.”

“There is no honour in betraying your friends.”

“That is — your friend?"
"Philtatos," Achilles replied, sharply. Most beloved.”