The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

“There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,” Chiron said. “And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone. Do you think?”

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

“Her safety for my honor. Are you happy with your trade?” “There is no honor in betraying your friends.” “It is strange,” he says, “that you would speak against betrayal.”

“No man is worth more than another, wherever he is from.”

“But what if he is your friend?” Achilles had asked him, feet kicked up on the wall of the rose-quartz cave. “Or your brother? Should you treat him the same as a stranger?” “You ask a question that philosophers argue over,” Chiron had said. “He is worth more to you, perhaps. But the stranger is someone else’s friend and brother. So which life is more important?”