"Already Odysseus had shown himself too clever by half. Our ragged alliances prevailed only when no man was allowed to be too much more powerful than another." (p. 13)

"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?" (p. 44)

"We were like gods at the dawning of the world, and our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other." (P. 103)

""Athena has no child to lose." The words grated from Thetis throat, hung in the air." (p. 166)

"Our men liked conquest; they did not trust a man who was conquered himself." (p. 176)

"Perhaps he simply assumed: a bitterness of habit, of boy after boy trained for music and medicine, and unleashed for murder." (p. 189)

"There were no words to speak...