Telemachus Quotes

“Odysseus' favourite pose had been to pretend that he was a man like other men, but there were none like him, and now that he was dead, there were none at all. All heroes are fools, he liked to say. What he meant was, all heroes but me. So who could correct him when he erred? He had stood on the beach looking at Telegonus and believing him a pirate. He had stood in his hall and accused Telemachus of conspiracy. Two children he had had, and he had not seen either clearly. But perhaps no parent can truly see their child. When we look we see only the mirror of our own faults.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“He talked so often of longing for us and home. But it was lies. When he was back on Ithaca he was never content, always looking to the horizon. Once we were his again, he wanted something else.”
― Madeline Miller, Circe

“Do you always make beautiful things for those you are angry with?”
― 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