Madeline Miller - The Song of Achilles (2011)

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Chiron had said once that nations were the most foolish of mortal inventions. "No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.

Madeline Miller
He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.

Madeline Miller
She wants you to be a god," I told him. "I know." His face twisted with embarrassment, and in spite of itself my heart lightened. It was such a boyish response. And so human. Parents, everywhere.

Madeline Miller
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?

Madeline Miller
I stopped watching for ridicule, the scorpion's tail hidden in his words. He said what he meant; he was puzzled if you did not. Some people might have mistaken this for simplicity. But is it not a sort of genius to cut always to the heart?

Madeline Miller
We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.

Madeline Miller
It was almost like fear, in the way it filled me, rising in my chest. It was almost like tears, in how swiftly it came. But it was neither of those, buoyant where they were heavy, bright were they dull.

Madeline Miller
I would still be with you. But I could sleep outside, so it would not be so obvious. I do not need to attend your councils. I—' 'No. The Phthians will not care. And the others can talk all they like. I will still be Aristos Achaion.' Best of the Greeks. 'Your honor could be darkened by it." 'Then it is darkened.' His jaw shot forward, stubborn. 'They are fools if they let my glory rise or fall on this.

Madeline Miller
I lay back and tried not to think of the minutes passing. Just yesterday we had a wealth of them. Now each was a drop of heartsblood lost.

Madeline Miller
My mind is filled with cataclysm and apocalypse. I wish for earthquakes, eruptions, flood.

Madeline Miller
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.

Madeline Miller
The ship's boards were still sticky with new resin. We leaned over the railing to wave our last farewell, the sun-warm wood pressed against our bellies. The sailors heaved up the anchor, square and chalky with barnacles, and loosened the sails. Then they took their seats at the oars that fringed the boat like eyelashes, waiting for the count. The drums began to beat, and the oars lifted and fell, taking us to Troy.

Madeline Miller
And her skin shone luminous and impossibly pale, as if it drank light from the moon.

Madeline Miller
I shift, an infinitesimal movement, towards him. It is like the leap from a waterfall. I do not know, until then, what I am going to do.

Madeline Miller