#achilles

Our dependence on foreign energy sources is our Achilles heel, not just in the realm of diplomacy, but in terms of our future as the world's economic leader. ↗

— Judy Biggert

#achilles heel #dependence #diplomacy #economic #energy

The Achilles Heel of the Americas was the lack of cultural confidence typical of new settlers. ↗

— Arthur Erickson

#achilles heel #americas #confidence #cultural #heel

I damaged my Achilles tendon, so I can't run. ↗

— Jason Isaacs

#damaged #i #run

I ruptured my plantaris muscle. It runs through the calf and goes down the side of your achilles and stretches right to the heel. ↗

— Lee Westwood

#calf #down #goes #heel #i

I found myself grinning until my cheeks hurt, my scalp prickling till I thought it might lift off my head. My tongue ran away from me, giddy with freedom. This, and this, and this, I said to him. I did not have to fear that I spoke too much. I did not have to worry that I was too slender, or too slow. This and this and this! I taught him how to skip stones, and he taught me how to carve wood. I could feel every nerve in my body, every brush of air against my skin. ↗

— Madeline Miller

#madeline-miller #the-song-of-achilles #freedom

And overpowered by memory Both men gave way to grief. Priam wept freely For man - killing Hector, throbbing, crouching Before Achilles' feet as Achilles wept himself, Now for his father, now for Patroclus once again And their sobbing rose and fell throughout the house. ↗

— Homer

#greek #homer #iliad #patroclus #priam

Achilles was like a rock star of his day so it made sense to have Brad Pitt playing him. ↗

— Wolfgang Petersen

#brad #brad pitt #day #him #his

My first sight of the fabled warrior was a surprise. He was not a mighty-thewed giant, like Ajax. His body was not broad and powerful, as Odysseos'. He seemed small, almost boyish, his bare arms and legs slim and virtually hairless. His chin was shaved clean, and the ringlets of his long black hair were tied up in a silver chain. He wore a splendid white silk tunic, bordered with a purple key design, cinched at the waist with a belt of interlocking gold crescents... His face was the greatest shock. Ugly, almost to the point of being grotesque. Narrow beady eyes, lips curled in a perpetual snarl, a sharp hook of a nose, skin pocked and cratered... A small ugly boy born to be a king... A young man possessed with fire to silence the laughter, to stifle the taunting. His slim arms and legs were iron-hard, knotted with muscle. His dark eyes were absolutely humourless. There was no doubt in my mind that he could outfight Odysseos or even powerful Ajax on sheer willpower alone. ↗

— Ben Bova

#the-trojan-war #design

One of the key characteristics of an elite corps is its susceptibility to those more powerful than itself. Elite power is naturally attracted to a power hierarchy and fits itself neatly, obediently into the one that promises the most personal benefits. Here is the Achilles’ heel of armies, police and bureaucracies. ↗

— Frank Herbert

#bureaucracies #bureaucracy #elite #hierarchy #power

I recognized the handwriting, and my heart gave a skip; when I opened it I got a turn, for it began, 'To my beloved Hector,' and I thought, by God she's cheating on me, and has sent me the wrong letter by mistake. But in the second line was a reference to Achilles, and another to Ajax, so I understood she was just addressing me in terms which she accounted fitting for a martial paladin; she knew no better. It was a common custom at that time, in the more romantic females, to see their soldier husbands and sweethearts as Greek heroes, instead of the whore-mongering, drunken clowns most of them were. However, the Greek heroes were probably no better, so it was not far off the mark. ↗

— George MacDonald Fraser

#ajax #ancient-greece #greek-heroes #hero #martiality