Quotessence
Home / Books / Circe

Circe

Book by Madeline Miller · 50 quotes · Circe, Greek Mythology, Odysseus

Filter quotes by topic

AllCirceGreek MythologyOdysseusMythologyMadeline MillerLoveFeminismInspirationalKirkeDaedalusGodsGreekMemoryAiaiaDeathFantasyFictionGreek GodsHeliosMortality

Circe Quotes

“It is funny,’ she said, ‘That even after all this time, you still believe you should be rewarded, just because you have been obedient. I thought you would have learned that lesson in your father’s halls. None shrank and simpered as you did, and yet the great Helios stepped on you all the faster, because you were already crouched at his feet.’ She was leaning forward, her golden hair loose, embroidering the sheets around her. ‘Let me tell you the truth about Helios and all the rest. They do not care if you are good. They barely care if you are wicked. The only thing that makes them listen is power.”

FictionWomens RightsGreek MythologyWitchcraftGender EqualityGender RolesCirceSpells And Witchcraft
Book:Circe
Create image

“I might have told him, in those hours, stories of my own. Scylla and Glaucos, Aeëtes, the Minotaur. The stone wall cutting into my back. The floor of my hall wet with blood, reflecting the moon. The bodies I had dragged one by one down the hill, and burned with their ship. The sound flesh makes when it tears and re-forms and how, when you change a man, you may stop the transformation partway through, and then that monstrous, half-beast thing will die. His face would be intent as he listened, his relentless mind examining, weighing and cataloguing. However I pretended I could conceal my thoughts as well as he, I knew it was not true. He would see down to my bones. He would gather my weaknesses up and set them with the rest of his collection, alongside Achilles’ and Ajax’s. He kept them on his person as other men keep their knives.”

StorytellingSecretsSharingGeminiSharing Is CaringPrivate ThoughtsScorpioPillowtalk
Book:Circe
Create image

“You could speak on my behalf. Try to persuade him.” His black eyes glittered. “I’m afraid I’m only a messenger.” “Please,” I said. “I do not want them here, truly. I am not being funny.” “No,” he said, “you are not. You are being very dull. Use your imagination, they must be good for something. Take them to your bed.” “That is absurd,” I said. “They would run screaming.” “Nymphs always do,” he said. “But I’ll tell you a secret: they are terrible at getting away.” At a feast on Olympus such a jest would have been followed by a roar of laughter. Hermes waited now, grinning like a goat. But all I felt was a white, cold rage. “I am finished with you,” I said. “I have been finished a long time. Let me not see you again.” If anything, his grin deepened. He vanished and did not return. It was no obedience. He was finished with me too, for I had committed the unpardonable sin of being dull. I could imagine the stories he was telling of me, humorless, prickly, and smelling of pigs. From time to time, I could sense him just out of sight, finding my nymphs in the hills, sending them back flushed and laughing, giddy from the great Olympian who had shown them favor. He seemed to think I would go mad with jealousy and loneliness, and turn them into rats indeed. A hundred years he had been coming to my island, and in all that time he had never cared for more than his own entertainment.”

ShallownessFair Weather FriendsJerk BoyfriendFriend Breakup
Book:Circe
Create image

“How do you decide which man deserves punishment and which does not? How can you judge for certain, this heart is rotted and this one good? What if you make a mistake?” [...] “Let us consider,” I said, “a boatload of sailors. Among them, some are undoubtedly worse than others. Some exult in rape and piracy, but others are newly come to it and scarcely have their beards. Some would never imagine robbery, except that their families are starving. Some feel shame after, some do it only because their captain commands it, and because they have the crowd of other men there, to hide among.” “And so,” he said, “which do you change, and which do you let go?” “I change them all,” I said. “They have come to my house. Why should I care what is in their hearts?”

JusticeJudgementVengeanceRuthlessZero Sum GameBlind JusticeShoot First Ask LaterDark Forest Policy
Book:Circe
Create image

“Ich saß auf den Felsen und dachte an die Geschichten von Nymphen, die so lange weinten, bis sie zu Felsgestein wurden oder zu Kranichen, zu dümmlichen Kühen und zu dürren Bäumen, ihre Gedanken bis in alle Ewigkeit eingesperrt unter der Rinde. Doch wie es schien, gelang mir noch nicht einmal das. Ich war mein Leben eingesperrt, umschlossen von granitenen Wänden, die immer näher rückten.”

EinsamkeitGedankenEwigkeitGötterGoldener KäfigGottheitenNymphen
Book:Circe
Create image