Priam Quotes in Troy (2004)

Achilles: You're still my enemy in the morning.

Priam: You're still my enemy tonight. But even enemies can show respect.

[Priam kneels and kisses Achilles' hands]

Achilles: Who are you?

Priam: I have endured what no one on earth has endured before. I kissed the hands of the man who killed my son.

Achilles: [realizes, stands abrubtly] Priam? How did you get in here?

Priam: I know my country better than the Greeks, I think.

Achilles: [walks forward, lifts Priam] You are a brave man. I could have your head on a spit in the blink of an eye.

Priam: Do you really think death frightens me now? I watched my eldest son die, watched you drag his body behind your chariot. Give him back to me. He deserves a proper burial, you know that. Give him to me.

Achilles: He killed my cousin.

Achilles: He thought it was you. How many cousins have you killed? How many sons and fathers and brothers and husbands? How many, brave Achilles?

Priam: I've fought many wars in my time. Some I've fought for land, some for power, some for glory. I suppose fighting for love makes more sense than all the rest.

[from director's cut]

Priam: When you were very young, you came down with scarlet fever. Your little hand was so hot. The healer said you would not last the night. I went down to Apollo's temple, and I prayed until the sun came up. That walk back to the palace was the longest of my life. When I went into your mother's room, and you were sleeping in her arms, your fever had broken. I promised that day to dedicate my life to the gods, I will not break my promise. For 30 years I have worked for peace, *thirty* years. Paris is a fool sometimes, I know that, but I will fight a thousand wars before letting him die.

Hector: Forgive me father, but you won't be the one fighting.

Priam: [to Achilles] I knew your father. He died well before his time. But he was fortunate enough to not have lived long enough to see his son fall.

Priam: [about Helen] Do you love her, my son?

Paris: Father, you are a great king, because you love your country so much. Every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every rock in the river... You love all of Troy. That is the way I love Helen.

[first lines]

Title Card: 3200 years ago. After decades of warfare Agamemnon, King of Mycanae, has forced the kingdoms of Greece into a loose alliance. Only Thessaly remains unconquered. Agamemnon's brother Menelaus, King of Sparta, is weary of battle. He seeks to make peace with Troy, the most powerful rival to the emerging Greek nation. Achilles, considered the greatest warrior ever born, fights for the Greek army. But his disdain for Agamemnon's rule threatens to break the fragile alliance apart.

Priam: 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're gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?

Paris: Father, this is Helen.

Priam: Helen? Helen of Sparta?

Paris: Helen of Troy.

Priam: [to Helen] I have heard rumors of your beauty. And for once, the gossip is right.

Priam: [to Achilles about Hector] I loved my boy from the moment he opened his eyes until the moment you closed them.

Priam: [on seeing the Greek naval fleet approaching] The face that launched a thousand ships!

Priam: Arise, Paris. And go.

High Priest: The virgin Cassandra does make one point that causes me much concern. Prince Paris, it appears, gives all his worship to one goddess alone, Aphrodite.

Paris: I'm not sure I worship anything. Now, admiration is the better word. Admiration for the beauty of a marble image.

Cassandra: Father, please hear me. This is not the end of ruin, but, the beginning.

Priam: We must not be ungrateful to a Goddess who has proved herself our Goddess. Bring in her sacred horse. It shall be a monument to Trojan valor.