How they laughed, congratulating Nicander on his wisdom—taking a silly girl as hostage instead of an intelligent boy: a girl who had just sold out her own father.
-- Narrator (I)

Importance: This quote comes at the very beginning of the novel after Anaxandra inadvertently gives up the location of her father's treasure to Nicander, who has just taken her as a hostage to try to squeeze some gold out of her father, Chrysaor. This quote introduces some of the gendered themes that will be fleshed out in the rest of the novel, as the people around Nicander think that he took this girl on purpose knowing that, in her inferiority to a boy, she would probably give up some valuable secret to them.

Marrying Callisto, only child of the king of Siphnos, would bring a man power, but no children, for Callisto was too weak to bear them. No man wants wealth...
-- Narrator (II)