Circe Quotes

“But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Percy tried to remember. He really did. For some reason, Annabeth and he had visited a spa and decided to destroy it. He couldn't imagine why. Maybe they hadn't like the deep-tissue massage? Maybe they'd gotten bad manicures?”
― Rick Riordan, The Son of Neptune

“But gods are born of ichor and nectar, their excellences already bursting from their fingertips. So they find their fame by proving what they can mar: destroying cities, starting wars, breeding plagues and monsters. All that smoke and savor rising so delicately from our altars. It leaves only ash behind.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“He liked the way the obsidian reflected his light, the way its slick surfaces caught fire as he passed. Of course, he did not consider how black it would be when he was gone. My father has never been able to imagine the world without himself in it.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“ "I gave up a world for you."
He glared at me, not giving me anything.
I kept right on going. "I thought, perhaps, when I learned I had powers, I might be able to use them to go home," his eyes flashed but that was all I got so I kept on going, "but not for good. My father isn't dead." Another flash. "He's alive and at home and living maybe with a fake Circe. He'll know the difference, though, I KNOW it. He's out of his mind with worry, I know that too. He's wondering where I am and if I'm okay and how to get me back. I also know that. I know that and I know that my life was good. I loved my life. I loved my home. I loved my job. I had a lot of people who loved me that loved me back." I sucked in a breath and then whispered, "But as much as your world scared me, as much as our practices repulsed me, I still chose you."
His torso jerked, it was almost imperceptible, but I caught it.
I kept at him. "I gave up my world for you, Lahn. I sat at your side through things people in my world would find loathsome and I did it with my head held high. I even felt 'pride' that I could endure, that I could be a good queen to you.......Everything I did in this fucking place, even before I fell in love with you, was for...fucking...YOU." ”
― Kristen Ashley, The Golden Dynasty

“Curse Hermes and his multi-vitamins!”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

“Then I whispered, “I love you, my Lahn,” and heard the swift hiss of his intake of breath. Then he buried his face in my neck and whispered back, “Loot kay hansahnalay na, my Circe.” And I love you, my Circe.”
― Kristen Ashley, The Golden Dynasty

“-’Tell me’, he said, ‘who gives better offerings, a miserable man or a happy one’?

-’A happy one, of course.’

-’Wrong. A happy man is too occupied with his life. He thinks he is beholden to no one. But make him shiver, kill his wife, cripple his child, then you will hear from him. He will starve his family for a month to buy yo a pure-white yearling calf. If he can afford it, he will buy you a hundred’.

-’But surely, I said, you have to reward him eventually. Otherwise he will stop offering’.

-’Oh, you would be surprised how long he will go on. But yes, in the end, it’s best to give him something. Then he will be happy again. And you can start over.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I did not pretend to be a mortal. I showed my lambent, yellow eyes at every turn. None of it made a difference. I was alone and a woman, that was all that mattered.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Toda mi vida había sido lúgubre y había transcurrido en las profundidades, pero yo no formaba parte de aquellas oscuras aguas; era una criatura inmersa en ellas.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Me adentré en el bosque y allí dio comienzo mi vida.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“«Toda mi vida había sido lúgubre y había transcurrido en las profundidades, pero yo no formaba parte de aquellas oscuras aguas; era una criatura inmersa en ellas»”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“In A.D. 1223 an infant was born, clutching a jewel in her tiny fist. Her peasant father ran to the castle to bring back a priest, but by the time they returned to the hut, the jewel had disappeared. The priest declared that such would be the child's life: all good would slip through her fingers.
The years passed, and the girl's beauty became celebrated. Knights and kings journeyed far to gaze into her eyes before leaving her on their crusades. Women and children made pilgrimages to look upon her angelic face. All who saw her felt blessed.
But an ancient evil called the Atrox also saw her unearthly perfection and pursued her, offering her father great treasures if she would betroth it. The girl saw her father's poverty and agreed to the union, making only one request for herself--- that her beauty should last forever. The Atrox agreed, and she pledged her devotion for eternity.
A Follower of the Atrox came to take the young woman to the underworld, but when he saw her beauty and grace, he fell desperately in love with her and she, too, with him.
They tried to hide their love, but the Atrox saw through their deception. When the young woman stepped into the Cold Fire to receive immortality, instead of preserving her beauty for eternity, the flames consumed her flesh and bones, turning her into a wind spirit.
The knight could not endure life without her. The force of his love drove him across the world, searching for a sorceress with the power to restore her human form. As he was crossing the sea, a storm broke out and sent his ship off course to the island of Aeaea, where Circe, an ancient enchantress, lived. Circe gave him a magic potion. With it, his beloved could possess any body she desired.
Since then many young women have felt her presence and wondered afterward what made them act so wickedly, never understanding that for a brief time, the spirit of the wind had taken over their mind and soul.”
― Lynne Ewing, Possession

“It was work, day after day of it.
Witchcraft is the same. I have laboured for centuries and still I have
not mastered it.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I would like to say that all the while I waited to break out, but the truth is, I'm afraid I might have floated on, believing the dull miseries were all there was, until the end of days.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I had stood beside my father's light, I had held Aeetes in my arms, and my bed was heaped with thick-woolled blankets woven by immortal hands. But it was not until that moment that I think I had ever been warm.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I was not like them. Are you not? The voice was my uncle's, resonant and deep. Then you must think, Circe. What would they not do?”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open.
I stepped into those woods and my life began.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“His eyes narrowed, and I could see the reflexive No in them. I would come to know this type of man, jealous of his little power, to whom I was only a woman.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I had not fooled myself with false hope. I was a goddess, and he a mortal, and both of us were imprisoned. But I pressed his face into my mind, as seals are pressed in wax, so I could carry it with me.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“The nymphs wafted around me. Their smothered laughter drifted down the halls. At least, I told myself, it was not their brothers, who would have bragged and fought and hunted down my wolves. But of course, that was never a real danger. Sons were not punished.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Living with him was like standing beside the sea. Each day a different colour, a different foam-capped height, but always the same restless intensity pulling towards the horizon.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Odysseus, son of Laertes, the great traveller, prince of wiles and tricks and a thousand ways. He showed me his scars, and in return let me pretend that I had none.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“But Athena had no babe, and she never would. Her only love was reason. And that has never been the same as reason.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“I had kept away from him for so many reasons: his mother and my son, his father and Athena. Because I was a god, and he a man. But it struck me then that at the root of all those reasons was a sort of fear. And I had never been a coward.
I reached across that breathing air between us and found him.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“…the feeling that flickered in me now was much older. There he was, his flesh laid open before me. This is something torn that I can mend.”
― Madeline Miller

“The only was to power for woman is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful woman! And me, of course. The greatest of all.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

“The only way to power for woman is sorcery. Medea, Calypso, now there were powerful woman! And me, of course. The greatest of all.”
― Rick Riordan, The Sea of Monsters

“Brides, nymphs were called, but that is not really how the world saw us. We were an endless feast laid out upon a table, beautiful and renewing. And so very bad at getting away.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe