Circe Quotes
"When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist."
"We spoke to fish and nurtured flowers, coaxed drops from the clouds or salt from the waves."
"My father glowed bright as just-forged bronze."
"She would have felt my father’s gaze, hot as gusts from a bonfire."
"It is marriage or nothing. And if it is marriage, be sure: you may have what girls you like in the field, but you will bring none home."
"The revulsion was plain on her face. Once when I was young I asked what mortals looked like."
"Helios the Sun was bound to no will but his own, and none might say what he would do."
"I must have had an odd look on my face, for Perses and Pasiphaë began to snicker from their couch."
"My father frowned. He had taken against Perses ever since he had mocked him over Minos."
"I could not be sure what my grandmother might have said to him."
"I have loved you since that first day I saw you sailing."
"Every hour some new bruise upon me, some new ache, always weary, always burdened and weak."
"I would rather you keep a chair, so I may come to speak with you."
"You dare to contradict me? You who cannot light a single flame, or call one drop of water?"
"The thought of returning to my father’s halls was like a white coal in my throat."
"The deep shadows would hide me, and the mossy ground would be soft against my ruined skin."
"The salt air of the beach stabbed like needles in my blasted throat."
"My relentless divinity began to make headway. My breath eased, my eyes cleared."
"Night came with its stars. It was moondark, when my aunt Selene goes to her dreaming husband."
"Not a sound, but a sort of silence, a faint hum like the space between note and note in a song."
"What had I thought would happen? That it would leap up and shout, Your father is wrong."
"I had a wild thought there, beneath that sky. I will eat these herbs."
"In my kingdom of Colchis, I have summoned dragons to draw my chariot."
"Pharmakeia, such arts are called, for they deal in pharmaka, those herbs with the power to work changes upon the world."
"My father’s gaze was far away. As if he were looking through sea and earth, all the way to Colchis."
"I think they cannot, whatever they try. As I said, pharmakeia is not bound by the usual limits of gods."
"I understand of course that you can make no judgments now. You must take counsel."
"I closed my eyes, drifting through the shocks and skirls of pain."
"I tell Father that my sorcery was an accident, he pretends to believe me, and Zeus pretends to believe him, and so the world is balanced."
"You will get used to it. We are ourselves alone now."
"My father’s words came slowly. That same numbness still masked his face."
"I was not prepared for such profusion and I felt the sudden urge to throw myself in, like a frog into a pond."
"I am not your dog, Pasiphaë, nor your bear to be baited."
"I will not sentence myself to such a living death."
"Witchcraft and invention have that in common."
"The greatest heroes of their generation, that crew was called."
"Who else would have enjoyed seeing me bleed so much?"
"I sang often in those days, for it was the best company I had."
"I liked the shape of it on my lips, the soothing lists of plants and crops."
"Visitors. I turned so quickly the dye splashed, and a burning drop fell on my hand."
"Each imperfection was a pleasure: the lines around their eyes, the scabs on their legs, the fingers broken off at the knuckle."
"Islands were dangerous places. You met monsters as often as friends."
"The fragility of mortals bred kindness and good grace."
"If you would thank your host, thank me. This house is mine alone."
"I thought of all those hours I had spent working my spells, singing, weaving. I felt their loss like a limb torn away."
"My whole life, I had waited for tragedy to find me."
"I fought on and he grew. That is all I can say."
"His mortality was always with me, constant as a second beating heart."
"I must be clear and clever. I must remember all the tricks that lesser gods have used against greater since the beginning of time."
"You cannot watch him all the time. I will take him in the end."
"You think all gods are like me. That you may ignore them as you please, treat them as your servants, that their wishes are only flies to be brushed aside."
"What makes you think you will be welcome on Ithaca? All you know of your father is stories."
"I have brothers too. Do you know what they would do if I were in their power?"
"I have never known such ugly, drawn-out deaths."
"You are as secret as a bull hiding on a beach!"
"You are not your blood. Do not let him take you with him."
"You want the true story of your son? He was a fool and a braggart."
"I will see their feet twisting the rest of my days."
"I will see you torn down, Father, before I will be jailed for your convenience any longer."
"You have always been the worst of my children. Be sure you do not dishonor me."
"I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out."
"I felt distant and very clear, like a hawk borne upon the highest aether."
"You warned me it was not safe. I do not think being frightened will help."
"We are not our blood. A witch once told me that."
"It is how you know you are different from your father."
"It is only because I have been fool enough for a hundred lifetimes."
"I do not forget either my father and his kind hanging over us, bright and sharp as swords, aimed at our tearing flesh."
"My breath fights in my throat. How can I live on beneath such a burden of doom?"
"Pulse by pulse, his life passed under my fingers."
"I have not pressed you, and still I will not."