Briseis

Briseis, from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii, fresco, 1st century AD, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples

Briseis and Phoenix, red-figure kylix, Template:Circa 490 BC, Louvre (G 152)<ref>Beazley Archive 203900.</ref>

Briseis (Template:IPAc-en; Template:Langx, Template:IPA), also known as Hippodameia (Template:Lang, Template:IPA),<ref>From the A scholium at Iliad 1.392 we learn that "[Homer] forms the names [of Briseïs and Chryseis] patronymically. For as other ancient [poets] relate, Chryseis was called Astynome, and Briseis was called Hippodameia." Dictys Cretensis calls Briseis by the latter name in his account of the Trojan War. See Dué 2002: Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis 56-58.</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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

tall and white, her hair was black and curly; she had beautiful breasts and cheeks and nose; she was, also, well-behaved; her smile was bright, her eyebrows big<ref>Tzetzes, Antehomerica 356-358</ref>

In the account of Dares 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",<ref>Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13</ref> while Malalas 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".<ref>Malalas, Chronography 5.101</ref>

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. She was married to an unnamed husband who was killed by Achilles.<ref>Homer, Iliad 19.291-95</ref>

In the Iliad, Achilles led the assault on Lyrnessus during the Trojan War, and slew several of the men in her family.<ref>See, e.g., Homer, Iliad 2.688–94</ref> 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 who 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 lavish offers of treasure, women, and even the return of Briseis, he did not return to the fray until the death of Patroclus.

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 persuaded him to accept Briseis back from Agamemnon, despite his insistence that he no longer cared for her. Agamemnon swore that he never had sex with Briseis.<ref>Homer, Iliad 19.261–63</ref>

Briseis smelling a flower, red-figure pottery, ca. 520–510 BC, British Museum

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.<ref>Homer, Iliad 9.406–20</ref> 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.<ref>Homer, Iliad 19.348–54. "Again and again you vowed you'd make me godlike Achilles's lawful, wedded wife, you would sail me west in your warships, home to Phthia, and there with the Myrmidons hold my marriage feast." (Robert Fagles translation)</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed 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.<ref>Bell, Robert (1991). Women of Classical Mythology p.244</ref> According to Malalas, she died from illness.<ref>Malalas, Chronography 5.105</ref>

In medieval romances, starting with the Roman de Troie, Briseis becomes Briseida<ref>Brizeida in the letter of Azalais d'Altier.</ref> 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

Abduction of Briseis, 4th century

• 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

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. Template:ISBN. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, Homeri Opera in five volumes. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 1920. Template:ISBN. Greek text available at the Perseus Digital Library.

External links

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