Briseis

Briseis and Phoenix, red-figure kylix, ca. 490 BC, Louvre (G 152).

Hippodameia Brisēís is a Trojan woman captured by the Greeks in the Iliad. She was first Achilles' prize of the Trojan war; he fell in love with her. She was then taken by King Agamemnon, but later returned to Achilles.

Story

In Greek mythology, Hippodameia (Greek: Ἱπποδάμεια), a daughter of Briseus and more often called by her patronym of Brisēís (Βρισηΐς) was a Trojan widow from Lyrnessus. When Achilles led the assault on that city during the Trojan War, her three brothers died, as did her husband (possibly King Mynes of Lyrnessus), at Achilles' hands; she was given to Achilles as a prize.

After an oracle forced Agamemnon to give up his woman, Chryseis, he ordered his heralds, Talthybius and Eurybates, to take Briseis from Achilles as compensation. Achilles was offended by this seizure and, as a result, withdrew from the fighting. Despite Agamemnon's grand offers of treasure and women, he did not return to the fray until the death of Patroclus.

The retirement of Achilles to his tent is the first event of Homer's Iliad. With Achilles removed from the conflict, the Trojans enjoyed a period of success. After Achilles' return to the fighting, Agamemnon restored Briseis to him.

In the Iliad, Achilles loves Briseis, comparing their relationship with that of man and wife (he refers to her as his wife and bride often).

Are the Atreidae of all mortal men
the only ones who love their wives? I think not.
Every sane decent fellow loves his own
and cares for her, as in my heart I loved
Briseis, though I won her by the spear.^[1]

Achilles is angry at Agamemnon, and seethes with rage in his tent: understandably made furious by the thought of Agamemnon sleeping with Briseis. When Achilles returns to the fighting to avenge Patrocles' death and Agamemnon returns Briseis to him, Agamemnon swears to Achilles that he and Briseis never shared a bed.^[2]

In medieval romances, starting with the Roman de Troie, Briseis becomes Briseida^[3] 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 Shakespeare's Cressida.

Cultural references

• In The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Briseis fell in love with Achilles and chose to leave Troy to be with him.
• The novel Daughter of Troy by Sarah B. Franklin is written from Briseis' point of view with a substantial pre-history before the events of the Illiad unfold [1].
• In Christa Wolf's novel Kassandra, aspects of the Homeric and medieval versions of Briseis' story are blended so that the character is steadily degraded from being Troilus' lover to Agamemnon and Achilles' plaything.
• Briseis is also featured in the 2004 film Troy. In the film, Briseis (Rose Byrne) is a cousin of the Trojan princes Hector and Paris, and falls in love with Achilles (Brad Pitt). She later kills Agamemnon (Brian Cox) during the Sack of Troy - a variation of his fate in the original mythology, where Agamemnon is also killed by a woman he wronged (but in quite different circumstances.)
• In Steven Saylor's novel A Murder on the Appian Way, part of the Roma Sub Rosa series, Gordianus tries to insult someone by comparing her to Briseis, but the woman fails to get the allusion and is therefore not insulted.

References

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