Briseis

A patronymic from Briseus, and the name of Hippodamia, the daughter of Briseus of Lyrnessus.

When the Greeks invaded her city she was taken as a war-prize by Achilles. At Troy, Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek army, was forced by an oracle of Apollo to give up his own war-prize, the woman Chryseïs, and he took Briseis away from Achilles as compensation for his loss. This action enraged Achilles and he refused to fight for the Greeks any further.

❧

Iconography

A fresco in the Casa del Poeta Tragico at Pompeii depicts Achilles giving the command to take the weeping Briseis to Agamemnon.

References

Sources

  • Aken, Dr. A.R.A. van. (1961). Elseviers Mythologische Encyclopedie. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
  • Homer. Iliad i, 184 ff.
  • Smith, William. (1870). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. London: Taylor, Walton, and Maberly.