Achilles

• [to his soldiers] Myrmidons! My brothers of the sword! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands! Let no man forget how menacing we are! We are lions! Do you know what's there, waiting beyond that beach? Immortality! Take it! It's yours!

• [to Hector] There are no pacts between lions and men.

• [to Briseis] I'll tell you a secret, something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now, and we will never be here again.

• At night I see their faces: all the men I've killed. They're standing there on the far bank of the river Styx, waiting for me. They say "Welcome, brother."

Odysseus

• Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?

• If they ever tell my story, let them say that I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses. Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles.

Priam

• I've fought many wars in my time. Some I've fought for land, some for power, some for glory. But I suppose fighting for love makes the most sense of all.

Thetis

• If you stay in Larissa, you will find peace. You will find a wonderful woman, and you will have sons and daughters, who will have children. And they'll all love you and remember your name. But when your children are dead, and their children after them, your name will be lost. If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories for thousands of years and the world will honor your name. But if you go to Troy, you will never come back, for your glory walks hand-in-hand with your fate. And I shall never see you again.

Dialogue

Agamemnon: A great victory was won today, but that victory was not yours. Kings did not kneel to Achilles. Kings did not pay homage to Achilles.

Achilles: Perhaps the kings were too far behind to see. The soldiers won the battle.

Agamemnon: History remembers kings, not soldiers! Tomorrow we'll batter down the gates of Troy and I will build monuments for victory on every island of Greece. I'll carve "Agamemnon" in the stone!

Achilles: Be careful, King of Kings. First you need the victory.

Hector: Oh, and that sounds heroic to you, doesn't it ? To die fighting? Tell me little brother, have you ever killed a man?

Paris: No.

Hector: Ever seen a man die in combat?

Paris: No.

Hector: I've killed men, and I've heard them dying, and I've watched them dying, and there's nothing glorious about it, nothing poetic! You say you want to die for love, but you know nothing about dying and you know nothing about love!

Paris: All the same, I go with her. I won't ask you to fight my war.

Hector: You already have.

Hector: I thought it was you I was fighting yesterday, and I wish it had been you. But I gave the dead boy the honor he deserved.

Achilles: You gave him the honor of your sword! You won't have eyes tonight. You won't have ears or a tongue. You will wander the underworld blind, deaf, and dumb, and all the dead will know: this is Hector, the fool who thought he killed Achilles.

Achilles: I told you how to fight, but I never told you why to fight.

Patroclus: I fight for you.

Achilles: Who will you fight for when I'm gone? Soldiers fight for kings they've never even met. They do what they're told to do. They die when they're told to die.

Patroclus: Soldiers obey.

Achilles: Don't waste your life following some fool's orders.