the song of achilles ✨

I would know him in death, at the end of the world.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood, like a hundred golden urns pouring out the sun.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'Go,' she says. 'He waits for you.'

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

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

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

I closed my eyes. 'Tell me again,' I said.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'Swear it.'
'Why me?'
'Because you're the reason. Swear it.'

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

There was more to say, but for once we did not say it. There would be other times for speaking, tonight and tomorrow and all the days after that.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'There are too many of them,' he said. 'It’s simpler if they just remember me.'

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'There are no bargains between lion and men. I will kill you and eat you raw.'

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'There is no law that gods must be fair, Achilles,' Chiron said.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

I am air and thought and can do nothing.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

When he died, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'It is right to seek peace for the dead. You and I both know there is no peace for those who live after.'

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

If you have to go, I will go with you. My fears forgotten in the golden harbor of his arms.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

I will never leave him. It will be this, always, for as long as he will let me.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.'

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

'If you go to Troy, your fame will be so great that a man will be written into eternal legend just for having passed a cup to you.'

[Classical Studies Memes @CSMFHT]

Achilles calls Thetis for help during the Trojan War, 1184 BC (colourised)

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

Achilles flushed as if he'd been struck. It was one thing to wear a dress out of necessity, another thing for the world to know of it. Our people reserved their ugliest names for men who acted like women; lives were lost over such insults.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

I looked back to Achilles. He was holding the earrings up to his ears now, turning them this way and that, pursing his lips, playing at girlishness. It amused him, and the corner of his mouth curved up.

[the song of achilles ✨ @tsoatext]

He caught the expression in my eyes and smiled. 'Later,' he promised me, then turned and went back down the path to the palace.