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Briseis (/braɪˈsiːɪs/;Ancient Greek:Βρισηίς,romanized: Brīsēís,lit. 'daughter of Briseus',pronounced[briːsɛːís]), also known asHippodameia (Ἱπποδάμεια,[hippodámeːa]),[2] is a significant character in theIliad. Her role as astatus symbol is at the heart of the dispute betweenAchilles andAgamemnon that initiates the plot ofHomer's epic. She was married toMynes, a son of the King ofLyrnessus, until theAchaeans 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.[3]
Briseis receives the same minimal physical description as most other minor characters in theIliad. 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.[4]
Briseis was imagined about two millennia later by the Byzantine poetJohn Tzetzes as:
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In the account ofDares the Phrygian (probably the 5th century AD), Briseis was illustrated as "... beautiful. She was small and blonde, 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",[6] whileMalalas describes her as "... tall, fair, beautiful-breasted, well-dressed, with close-knit eyebrows, a good nose, big eyes, eyelashes with kohl, curly hair worn long in back, with a ready smile".[7]
According to her mythology, Briseis was the daughter ofBriseus and an unnamed mother. She had three full brothers who died in the sacking of Lyrnessus. She was married to an unnamed husband who was killed byAchilles.[8]
In theIliad, Achilles led the assault on Lyrnessus during theTrojan War, and slew several of the men in her family.[9] She was subsequently given to Achilles as a war prize. In the Mycenaean Greek society described in theIliad, captive women like Briseis were slaves and could be traded amongst the warriors. John Tzetzes suggests that it wasPalamedes who abducted Briseis, and from theAchaeans' collected spoils Achilles was given Briseis.
According to Book 1 of theIliad, when Agamemnon was compelled byApollo 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 lavish offers of treasure, women, and even the return of Briseis, Achilles refused them all and did not return to the fray until the death ofPatroclus.
Achilles was enraged with Agamemnon and seethed in his tent, furious that Agamemnon had dared to insult his honor and standing among the Greeks by stripping him of a prize that was awarded to him. When Achilles finally returned to battle to avenge Patroclus, Odysseus had to persuade him to accept Briseis back from Agamemnon, as Achilles no longer minded her, nor anything tied to the quarrel. Agamemnon swore that he never had sex with Briseis.[10]
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WhenOdysseus,Ajax, andPhoenix 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 usingMenelaus andHelen to complain about the injustice of his "wife" being taken from him.[11] 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.[12]
In book 19 of theIliad, 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.[13] This contrasts his own statements in book 9.
She remained with Achilles until his death, which plunged her into great grief. According to later authors, she soon took it upon herself to prepare Achilles for the afterlife.[citation needed] According to Robert Bell, following his death, Briseis "was given to one of Achilles's comrades-at-arms just as his armour had been", after the fall of Troy.[14] According toMalalas, she died from illness.[15]
In medievalromances, starting with theRoman de Troie, Briseis becomesBriseida[16] and is the daughter ofCalchas. She loves and is loved byTroilus and thenDiomedes. She is later confused withChryseis and it is under variations of that name that the character is developed further, becomingChaucer's Criseyde, thenShakespeare'sCressida.
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And so Briseis returned, like golden Aphrodite...with both hands clawing deep at her breasts, her soft throat and lovely face, she sobbed, a woman like a goddess in her grief
Agamemnon—was it better for both of us, after all, for you and me to rage at each other ... all for a young girl? If only Artemis had cut her down at the ships—with one quick shaft—that day I destroyed Lyrnessus, chose her as my prize.
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