“That girl Briseïs” and Her Modern Representations

Abstract

The main goal of this article is to conduct a comparative feminist analysis of three literary texts, which is focused on a single character depicted in them, Briseïs. The first of these texts is Homer’s The Iliad. Here, Briseïs is a slave of Achilles who, in Book 1, is abducted by Agamemnon, which becomes a charge of conflict between the two warriors. In the epic, Briseïs speaks only once, to mourn the fallen Patroclus. Her lament is the starting point for the interpretation of this character in two modern retellings of The Iliad. A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes was published in 2019 and a year later was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction for retelling the classic through a feminist lens. Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles was published in 2011 and was awarded Orange Prize for Fiction. It focuses primarily on the deep bond – both romantic and erotic – between Achilles and Patroclus. Whereas Briseïs is not a protagonist in either text, both novels transform her into a nuanced individual with agency and a voice.