Character · Individual

Briseis

Published entity metadata

Read-only identity and editorial metadata.

Canonical name: Briseis
Disambiguator: None
Kind: Character
Scope: Individual
Editorial note: No editorial note published.

Aliases

daughter of Briseus

Descriptive reference · Reported

Location presence

Phase 6 currently covers 24 processed books.

tent of Achilles3 observations

·Direct

Briseis was brought out of Achilles’s tent, establishing her prior presence inside it.

See evidence text

“He brought Briseis from the tent”

·Remembered

Achilles recounts that the heralds had just taken Briseis out of his tent, establishing her prior presence there.

See evidence text

“the heralds have just taken from my tent the daughter of Briseus”

·Remembered

Nestor recalls Agamemnon’s completed removal of Briseis from Achilles’s tent, establishing her prior physical presence there.

See evidence text

“No man will be of a truer mind than that which has been mine from the hour when you, sir, angered Achilles by taking the girl Briseis from his tent against my judgment.”

Lyrnessus1 observation

·Direct

Briseis had been physically taken from Lyrnessus.

See evidence text

“the girl Briseis, whom he had taken from Lyrnessus”

tents and ships of the Myrmidons1 observation

·Direct

Briseis, one of the presents enumerated in the preceding passage, is taken to Achilles’s ship and placed among his tents.

See evidence text

“The Myrmidons attended to the presents and took them away to the ship of Achilles. They placed them in his tents, while the stable-men drove the horses in among the others.”

Claims

·Hypothetical

Agamemnon threatens to take Briseis from Achilles’s tent as a demonstration of his greater strength.

See evidence text

“I shall come to your tent and take your own prize Briseis, that you may learn how much stronger I am than you are”

·Direct

Briseis is taken from Achilles’s tent to the Achaean ships and goes reluctantly.

See evidence text

“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.”

·Remembered

Achilles remembers Briseis as the daughter of Briseus, awarded to him and just taken from his tent by heralds.

See evidence text

“the heralds have just taken from my tent the daughter of Briseus, whom the Achaeans had awarded to myself”

·Direct

Briseis was captured by Achilles at great peril from Lyrnessus after he sacked that city and Thebe, and her loss leaves him furious and grieving by his ships.

See evidence text

“Those again who held Pelasgic Argos, Alos, Alope, and Trachis; and those of Phthia and Hellas the land of fair women, who were called Myrmidons, Hellenes, and Achaeans; these had fifty ships, over which Achilles was in command. 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, whom he had taken from Lyrnessus at his own great peril, when he had sacked Lyrnessus and Thebe, and had overthrown Mynes and Epistrophus, sons of king Evenor, son of Selepus. For her sake Achilles was still grieving, but ere long he was again to join them.”

·Reported

Nestor recalls that Agamemnon took Briseis from Achilles although she was his awarded prize.

See evidence text

“taking the girl Briseis from his tent against my judgment. I urged you not to do so, but you yielded to your own pride, and dishonoured a hero whom heaven itself had honoured—for you still hold the prize that had been awarded to him”

·Reported

Agamemnon offers Briseis back and swears he has not been with her sexually.

See evidence text

“with them her whom I erewhile took from him, the daughter of Briseus; and I swear a great oath that I never went up into her couch, nor have been with her after the manner of men and women”

·Reported

Ulysses repeats the offer to return Briseis and Agamemnon’s oath that he has not shared her bed.

See evidence text

“with them her whom he erewhile took from you, the daughter of Briseus, and he will swear a great oath, he has never gone up into her couch nor been with her after the manner of men and women”

·Reported

Achilles says Briseis was the woman he delighted in and loved wholeheartedly despite winning her by the spear.

See evidence text

“the woman in whom I delighted—let him keep her and sleep with her. Why, pray, must the Argives needs fight the Trojans? What made the son of Atreus gather the host and bring them? Was it not for the sake of Helen? Are the sons of Atreus the only men in the world who love their wives? Any man of common right feeling will love and cherish her who is his own, as I this woman, with my whole heart”

·Remembered

Achilles recalls winning Briseis as the fruit of his spear after sacking a city and says Agamemnon took her from him.

See evidence text

“The girl whom the sons of the Achaeans chose for me, whom I won as the fruit of my spear on having sacked a city—her has King Agamemnon taken from me as though I were some common vagrant.”

·Remembered

Achilles recalls Briseis as the subject of his angry quarrel with Agamemnon and as the woman he took after sacking Lyrnessus.

See evidence text

“when we two were in such high anger about Briseis, surely it would have been better, had Diana’s arrow slain her at the ships on the day when I took her after having sacked Lyrnessus”

·Direct

Briseis is brought from Agamemnon’s tent together with the seven women skilled in useful arts, making eight women in all.

See evidence text

“they also brought the women skilled in useful arts, seven in number, with Briseis, which made eight”

·Reported

Agamemnon swears that he never touched Briseis sexually or otherwise and that she remained inviolate in his tents.

See evidence text

“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”

·Remembered

Achilles recalls that Briseis was taken from him against his will by Agamemnon.

See evidence text

“taken Briseis from me against my will”

·Direct

Briseis is fair as Venus; seeing Patroclus’s mangled body, she throws herself upon it, cries out, and tears her breast, neck, and lovely face with both hands.

See evidence text

“Briseis, fair as Venus, when she saw the mangled body of Patroclus, flung herself upon it and cried aloud, tearing her breast, her neck, and her lovely face with both her hands”

·Direct

Briseis lies beside Achilles in an inner room.

See evidence text

“Achilles lay in an inner room of the house, with fair Briseis by his side.”

Additional evidence

Evidence records not already represented by a claim.

·Direct

“Briseis”

·Direct

“the girl Briseis”

·Direct

“the girl Briseis”

·Direct

“when we two were in such high anger about Briseis”

·Direct

“with fair Briseis by his side”