Briseis

Briseis (; , ), also known as Hippodameia (, ), is a significant character in the ''Iliad''. Her role as a status symbol is at the heart of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that initiates the plot of Homer's epic. She was married to Mynes, a son of the King of Lyrnessus, until the Achaeans sacked her city and she was given to Achilles shortly before the events of the poem. Being forced to give Briseis to Agamemnon, Achilles refused to reenter the battle.

Description

Briseis receives the same minimal physical description as most other minor characters in the ''Iliad''. She is described with the standard metrical epithets that the poet uses to describe a great beauty, though her appearance is left entirely up to the audience's imagination. Her beauty is compared to that of the goddesses.

Briseis was imagined about two millennia later by the Byzantine poet John Tzetzes as:

Meanwhile, in the account of Dares the Phrygian (probably the 5th century AD), Briseis was illustrated as "... beautiful. She was small and blond, with soft yellow hair. Her eyebrows were joined above her lovely eyes. Her body was well-proportioned. She was charming, friendly, modest, ingenuous, and pious."

Mythology

According to her mythology, Briseis was the daughter of Briseus and an unnamed mother. She had three full brothers who died in the sacking of Lyrnessus.

In the ''Iliad'', Achilles led the assault on Lyrnessus during the Trojan War, and slew several of the men in her family. She was subsequently given to Achilles as a war prize. In the Mycenaean Greek society described in the ''Iliad'', captive women like Briseis were slaves and could be traded amongst the warriors. John Tzetzes suggests that it was Palamedes that abducted Briseis, and from the Achaeans' collected spoils Achilles was given Briseis.

According to Book 1 of the ''Iliad'', when Agamemnon was compelled by Apollo to give up his own slave, Chryseis, he demanded Briseis as compensation. This prompted a quarrel with Achilles that culminated with Briseis' delivery to Agamemnon and Achilles's protracted withdrawal from battle. His absence had disastrous consequences for the Greeks. Despite Agamemnon's grand offers of treasure and women, he did not return to the fray until the death of Patroclus.

Achilles was angry at Agamemnon, and seethed with rage in his tent that Agamemnon dared to insult him by stripping him of the prize that had been awarded to him. When Achilles returned to the fighting to avenge Patroclus's death and Agamemnon returned Briseis to him, Agamemnon swore to Achilles that he had never had sex with Briseis.

When Odysseus, Ajax, and Phoenix visit Achilles to negotiate her return in book 9, Achilles refers to Briseis as his wife or his bride. He professes to have loved her as much as any man loves his wife, at one point using Menelaus and Helen to complain about the injustice of his "wife" being taken from him. This romanticized, domestic view of their relationship contrasts with book 19, in which Briseis herself speaks. As she laments Patroclus's death, she wonders what will happen to her without his intercession on her behalf, saying that Patroclus promised her he would get Achilles to make her his legal wife instead of his slave.

In book 19 of the ''Iliad'', Achilles makes a rousing speech to the Achaean soldiers. He publicly declares that he will ignore his anger with Agamemnon and return to battle. During his speech, Achilles says he wishes Briseis were dead, lamenting that she ever came between Agamemnon and himself. This contrasts his own statements in book 9.

She remained with Achilles until his death, which plunged her into great grief. She soon took it upon herself to prepare Achilles for the afterlife. According to Robert Bell, following his death, Briseis "was given to one of Achilles's comrades-at-arms just as his armor had been", after the fall of Troy. According to Malalas, she died from illness.

In medieval romances, starting with the '' Roman de Troie'', Briseis becomes Briseida''Brizeida'' in the letter of Azalais d'Altier. and is the daughter of Calchas. She loves and is loved by Troilus and then Diomedes. She is later confused with Chryseis and it is under variations of that name that the character is developed further, becoming Chaucer's Criseyde, then Shakespeare's Cressida.

Portrayals in literature and art

* ''Iliad'', a Greek epic poem attributed to Homer
* '' Heroides'', a work by the Roman poet Ovid, made up of letters from mythological heroines to their heroes.
* ''Abduction of Briseis'', a papyrus drawing, possibly of Ancient Egyptian origin, depicting Briseis being abducted by Agamemnon's heralds, Talthybius and Eurybates

Notes

References

* Dares Phrygius, ''from The Trojan War.'' ''The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian'' translated by Richard McIlwaine Frazer, Jr. (1931–). Indiana University Press. 1966
Online version at theio.com
* Homer, ''The Iliad'' with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924.
Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
* Homer, ''Homeri Opera'' in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920.
Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library

External links

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{{Authority control
Queens in Greek mythology
Trojans
Women of the Trojan war
Greek mythological slaves