Taylor

“Dawn veiled in saffron rose from the streams of Ocean, to carry light to the immortals and to mortal men, and Thetis arrived at the ships carrying the gifts from Hephaestus. She found her beloved son lying with his arms around Patroclus, keening, and his many companions about him dissolved in tears; and she stood among them, the shining among goddesses, and clasped his hand, and spoke to him and said his name: "My child, grieved though we be, we must leave this one lie, since by the will of the gods he has been broken once for all; you now take the splendid armor from Hephaestus, exceeding in beauty, such as a mortal man has never worn upon his shoulders." Then so speaking the goddess laid the armor down before Achilles; and it clashed loud, all that was elaborately wrought. And trembling took all the Myrmidons, nor did any dare to look upon it straight, and they shrank afraid; but Achilles as he gazed upon it, so anger entered him all the more, and his eyes terribly shone out beneath his lids like fire flare; and he rejoiced as he held in his hands the glorious gifts of the god.”
― Caroline Alexander, The Iliad

“And white-armed Andromache led the lament among them, holding in her arms the head of horse-breaking Hector: "My husband, you were lost from life while young, and are leaving me a widow in your halls; and the child is still just a baby, whom we bore, you and I, ill-fated both, nor do I think he will reach young manhood; before that this city will be wholly ravaged; for you its watchman have perished, who used to guard it, who protected its devoted wives and tender children. They soon will be carried away in the hollow ships, and I with them; and you then, my child, either you will follow with me, and there do work unworthy of you toiling for a harsh master-or some Achaean man seizing you by the arm will hurl you from the ramparts, unhappy death, in his anger, one whose brother, perhaps, Hector slew, or his father or even his son, since so many of the Achaeans gripped the broad earth in their teeth at Hector's hands. For your father was no gentle man in sad battle; therefore the people mourn him through the city, and cursed is the grief and lamentation you have laid upon your parents, Hector. And to me beyond all others will be left painful sorrow; for you did not reach out your hands to me from your bed as you were dying, nor did you speak some close word to me, which I might always remember through the nights and days as I shed my tears." So she spoke, crying, and the women in response mourned.”
― Caroline Alexander, The Iliad

“And Athena, daughter of Zeus who wields the aegis,
let fall her rippling robe upon her father's floor,
elaborate with embroidery, which she herself had made and labored on with her own hands,
and putting on the cloak of Zeus who gathers clouds,
she armed herself for tearful war.
Around her shoulders she flung the tasseled aegis
a thing of dread, crowned on every side with Panic all around,
and Strife was on it, and Battle Spirit and chilling Flight,
and on it too the terrible monstrous Gorgon head,
a thing of awe and terror, portent of Zeus who wields the aegis;
and on her head Athena placed her helmet, ridged on both sides,
with four golden bosses, adorned with fighters of a hundred cities;
she made her way on foot toward the flame-bright chariot, and seized her spear
heavy, massive, powerful, with which she beats down the ranks of warrior
men, with whom she, born of the mighty Father, might be angered.”
― Caroline Alexander, The Iliad

“The thicket about me became altered to my imagination. Every shadow became something more than a shadow, became an ambush; every rustle became a threat. Invisible things seemed watching me.”
― H. G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau Annotated