Briseis

Also known as: fair Briseis · Family: Achaeans · Role: captive · First appears: BOOK I

🌐 Also appears in: Greek Mythology — A Family Orrery (as Briseis)

In Book I, Briseis, daughter of Briseus, is awarded to Achilles by the Achaeans. Agamemnon orders her seized from Achilles, who releases her to the heralds despite her reluctance to leave. In Book II, Achilles keeps his forces out of the war because Agamemnon has taken her.

In Book XIX, Agamemnon swears he has not violated Briseis, and she is brought with his promised gifts and restored to Achilles. She recalls that Patroclus had promised she would marry Achilles and return with him to Phthia, and says she will always grieve for him because he was kind to her.

Relationship record

Life events

• Agamemnon orders his messengers to seize Briseis from Achilles.(BOOK I · 📍 the tents and ships of the Myrmidons)
  • With: Agamemnon Achilles
  • “Go,” said he, “to the tent of Achilles, son of Peleus; take Briseis by the hand and bring her hither; if he will not give her I shall come with others and take her—which will press him harder.””
• Achilles releases Briseis to Agamemnon’s heralds, despite her reluctance to leave.(BOOK I · 📍 the tents and ships of the Myrmidons)
  • With: Achilles Patroclus Talthybius Eurybates
  • “Patroclus did as his dear comrade had bidden him. He brought Briseis from the tent and gave her over to the heralds, who took her with them to the ships of the Achaeans—and the woman was loth to go.”
• Achilles remains with his ships, keeping his forces out of the war because Agamemnon took Briseis.(BOOK II)
  • With: Achilles
  • “But they now took no part in the war, inasmuch as there was no one to marshal them; for Achilles stayed by his ships, furious about the loss of the girl Briseis”
• Agamemnon publicly swears he never violated Briseis and ratifies his amends.(BOOK XIX)
  • With: Agamemnon Achilles
  • “I call Jove the first and mightiest of all gods to witness, I call also Earth and Sun and the Erinyes who dwell below and take vengeance on him who shall swear falsely, that I have laid no hand upon the girl Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor otherwise, but that she has remained in my tents inviolate.”
• Agamemnon’s promised gifts, including Briseis, are brought before the assembly and restored to Achilles.(BOOK XIX)
  • With: Agamemnon Achilles
  • “they brought out the seven tripods which Agamemnon had promised, with the twenty metal cauldrons and the twelve horses; they also brought the women skilled in useful arts, seven in number, with Briseis, which made eight.”

BOOK I

• parent: Briseus “the daughter of Briseus”
• with Agamemnon (interaction) “I shall come to your tent and take your own prize Briseis”
• with Achilles (interaction) “the heralds have just taken from my tent the daughter of Briseus, whom the Achaeans had awarded to myself.”

BOOK II

• with Achilles (interaction) “Achilles stayed by his ships, furious about the loss of the girl Briseis, whom he had taken from Lyrnessus at his own great peril”

BOOK IX

• with Agamemnon (interaction) “the girl Briseis from his tent”
• parent: Briseus “with them her whom I erewhile took from him, the daughter of Briseus”

BOOK XIX

• with Achilles (Achilles captured Briseis during the sack of Lyrnessus.) “when I took her after having sacked Lyrnessus”
• with Patroclus (Patroclus had promised to arrange Achilles’s marriage to Briseis.) “you said you would make Achilles marry me, and take me back with him to Phthia”
• with Agamemnon (interaction) “that I have laid no hand upon the girl Briseis, neither to take her to my bed nor otherwise”
• friends with Patroclus “You were always kind to me and I shall never cease to grieve for you.”

BOOK XXIV

• with Achilles (interaction) “while Achilles lay in an inner room of the house, with fair Briseis by his side.”

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Extracted from the original text of The Iliad. Made with Rho MD.