Henry Treece > Quotes

“But doctor, even you, a Hittite, saw what our Mycenaean shields were like! Oh, don’t smile, I may be an old woman, but I known what I am talking about, and if you will be patient, you will understand, too… You do not see the wholeness of things, the Virtue, the arête. You observe one fact, the single symptom, like the Hittite doctor you are, but your eyes are blind to the Ananke, the whole Order of things which even the gods cannot infringe. The shield is formed on a frame, and that frame is the will of man. But after the sun and rain have been on it a week, its shape has changed beyond man’s guiding; and that is Ananke… though I began upon a firm frame, the hide of my experience has tautened and twisted until now I am as Ananke will me to be. I am not what I wished, or others wished for me: I am what it was ordained for me to become ever the seed passed from my father to my mother. I am the cow’s hide, tormented to the only shape it can be. Now do you see? Do you see that there may be no anger, no regret, no remorse?”
― Henry Treece, Electra

“Knud Ulfson did not like those words; but he knew that Harald Sigurdson never spoke unless he meant what he said. Indeed, along the fjord there was a fire-saying which went:

‘Thunder threatens but may not strike;
Rain threatens but may blow over;
Wolf snarls but may not bite;
When Harald snarls, your life is over.”
― Henry Treece, Viking's Sunset

“My pattern has been stitched by women, I fancy even more than by men. There were the girls at the village beyond the pine wood, then Perimede who called herself my mother then Hera of the Ford, then dear sweet Hypsipyle, and then Medea. . . . Do I forget the two daughters of Pelias? One with the slashed face, the other with the hanging breast . . . No, those two did not mean much to me, not even as much as that little washed-out fool Glauce, Creon’s brat, for whom I gave my dear sons and my life before all was over.”
― Henry Treece, Jason

“You must forgive me; I must speak, or I should weep, and a king must not weep where fishermen and washerwomen can see his tears. Not now that the Dorians have set the new fashion of men being known as cowards if they weep . . . We must all laugh now, whatever the occasion.”
― Henry Treece, Jason

“Harald Sigurdson, I am a fool who has come to his senses. I obey you in all things. I love you in all things. I am your man. Let us now fight as brothers!’
Harald did not hear these words. For he too was a berserk. . . .”
― Henry Treece, Viking's Sunset

“I had forgotten the daughters of Pelias, Heracles, my once-dear Hypsipyle and my laughing little son, Euneus. . . . After all, it might be argued, a man with a strong right arm can find himself a queen anywhere; and babies are not so difficult for a young fellow to get. But gold is hard to come by.”
― Henry Treece, Jason

“Harald said, ‘In England, in the south, there is a circle of great stones, about which men say the same thing. It was there before the Romans came, and it will be there when Odin decides to crumble the world in his two great
hands. There are some such monuments which are meant to teach man that he is but a little thing, with a life hardly longer than that of a spring fly.”
― Henry Treece, Viking's Sunset

“Grummoch said, ‘There is little profit in talking to him yet. These berserks live in a closed world of conflict and brotherhood. It will be long before Knud Ulfson’s ears will be open to the voices of men, for he is in the battle-trance yet, and I doubt whether he could see his hand before his face. That is the way of berserks.”
― Henry Treece, Viking's Sunset

“After all, in my young days, few girls reached the age of thirteen without being raped. Hellenic girls made little of such a thing and could always account for their baby by saying that Poseidon, or Zeus, or ancient Cronos, even, had visited them in their dreams.”
― Henry Treece, Jason