The Iliad Briseis Quotes

if our generous Argives will give me a prize,
a match for my desires, equal to what I’ve lost,
well and good. But if they give me nothing
I will take a prize myself – your own, or Ajax’
or Odysseus’ prize – I’ll commandeer her myself
and let that man I go to visit choke with rage!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 159-165. To repair his pride, Argamemnon agrees to give up the Trojan woman Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, if he gets a new prize of war. Fuelling his fight with Achilles further, he threatens to take the Greek hero’s war prize Briseis or Great Ajax’s, even if they choke with rage.

And now you threaten to strip me of my prize in person –
the one I fought for long and hard, and sons of Achaea
handed her to me.
My honors never equal yours,
whenever we sack some wealthy Trojan stronghold –
my arms bear the brunt of the raw, savage fighting,
true, but when it comes to dividing up the plunder
the lion’s share is yours, and back I go to my ships,
clutching some scrap, some pittance that I love,
when I have fought to exhaustion.
No more now –
back I go to Phthia. Better that way by far,
to journey home in the beaked ships of war.
I have no mind to linger here disgraced,
brimming your cup and piling up your plunder.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 190-202. The dispute between the two dominant Greeks Achilles and Agamemnon escalates. A proud Achilles launches a strong verbal attack on Agamemnon for theatening to take his war prize, Briseis. He complains that Agamemnon takes the lion’s share (metaphor) of the spoils and honors of war, while he gets the scraps after fighting to exhaustion. Achilles says that he would rather go home than remain in Troy dishonored.

Pallas Athena! the terrible blazing of those eyes,
and his winged words went flying: "Why, why now?
Child of Zeus with the shield of thunder, why come now?
To witness the outrage Agamemnon just committed?
1 tell you this, and so help me it’s the truth –
he’ll soon pay for his arrogance with his life!"

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 235-240. Achilles asks the goddess Athena why she has appeared to him. Achilles is in a rage because of Agamemnon’s disrespect to him, by threatening to take away his war prize Briseis.

Staggering drunk, with your dog’s eyes, your fawn’s heart!
Never once did you arm with the troops and go to battle
or risk an ambush packed with Achaea’s picked men
you lack the courage, you can see death coming.
Safer by far, you find, to foray all through camp,
commandeering the prize of any man who speaks against you.
King who devours his people! Worthless husks, the men you rule.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 264-270. Achilles uses metaphorical language to taunt Agamemnon and compare him to lowly animals. The Greek warrior is himself proud in battle and he is far from impressed by what he says is Agamemnon’s lack of courage in the fight against Troy. Achilles is also furious with Agamemnon for commandeering his "prize" slave Briseis.

True, old man – all you say is fit and proper –
but this soldier wants to tower over the armies,
he wants to rule over all, to lord it over all,
give out orders to every man in sight. Well,
there’s one, I trust, who will never yield to him!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 335-339. Agamemnon responds to Nestor’s attempt to mediate in his dispute with Achilles, when the elder captain and king of Pylos asks that they both back down. But fueled by his intense pride, the angry Agamemnon ignores Nestor’s plea, accusing Achilles of wanting to rule and lord it over everyone. He vows that he will never yield to Achilles.

They were afraid, they held the king in awe
and stood there, silent. Not a word to Achilles.
not a question. But he sensed it all in his heart,
their fear, their charge, and broke the silence for them:
"Welcome. couriers! Good heralds of Zeus and men.
here, come closer. You have done nothing to me.
You are not to blame. No one but Agamemnon –
he is the one who sent you for Briseis.
Go, Patroclus, Prince, bring out the girl."

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 390-398. When Agamemnon’s messengers arrive at Achilles’s camp to take Briseis, looking fearful, Achilles attempts to put at ease. Offering a hand of friendship, he assures them that he attributes no blame to them, but to Agamemnon alone. He orders his close friend and confidant Patroclus to bring out the girl.

But let them both bear witness to my loss…
in the face of blissful gods and mortal men,
in the face of that unbending, ruthless king –
if the day should come when the armies need me
to save their ranks from ignominious, stark defeat.
The man is raving – with all the murderous fury in his heart.
He lacks the sense to see a day behind, a day ahead,
and safeguard the Achaeans battling by the ships.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 400-407. Agamemnon sends two heralds to seize Briseis from Achilles and Achilles consents to hand her over. He tells the heralds that Agamemnon is an inferior leader and says that Agamemnon will not be there to save the Achaeans when the need arises. Achilles also predicts that the day will come when they will need the help of Achilles.

But Achilles wept, and slipping away from his companions,
far apart, sat down on the beach of the heaving gray sea
and scanned the endless ocean.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 1, lines 413-415. Achilles becomes very emotional and cries when Briseis is taken away from him by Agamemnon’s men, even though she is a slave girl. This is partly out of rage that Agamemnon dishonored him, but also because he actually loves her. Later in Book 9 Achilles confesses: "I loved that woman with all my heart, though I won her like a trophy with my spear."

No one will offer a better plan than this…
the plan I still retain, and I’ve been forming,
well, for a good long while now, from the very day
that you, my illustrious King, infuriated Achilles –
you went and took from his tents the girl Briseis,
and not with any applause from us, far from it:
I for one, I urged you against it, strenuously.
But you, you gave way to your overbearing anger,
disgraced a great man the gods themselves esteem –
you seized his gift of honor and keep her still.
But even so, late as it is, let us contrive
to set all this to rights, to bring him round
with gifts of friendship and warm, winning words.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 123-135. Nestor, King of Pylos and oldest Achaean commander, calls out Agamemnon for his self-pride and says that it is not too late to heal his rift with Achilles. He tells us that Agamemnon in anger stole Achilles’s gift of honor Briseis and keeps her still, infuriating Achilles, a hero with the gods on his side. Nestor urges Agamemnon to acknowledge his fault and set things right.

Twelve cities of men I’ve stormed and sacked from shipboard,
eleven I claim by land, on the fertile earth of Troy.
And from all I dragged off piles of splendid plunder,
hauled it away and always gave the lot to Agamemnon,
that son of Atreus – always skulking behind the lines,
safe in his fast ships – and he would take it all,
he’d parcel out some scraps but keep the lion’s share.
Some he’d hand to the lords and kings – prizes of honor –
and they, they hold them still. From me alone, Achilles
of all Achaeans, he seizes, he keeps the bride I love.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 398-407. Achilles angrily tells Agamemnon’s ambassadors that in all the cities he stormed and plundered, Agamemnon kept the lion’s share (metaphor) of the plunder for himself. Agamemnon would hand out prizes of honor to some leaders, but from Achilles alone he seizes his prize – the woman he loves, Briseis.

Why must we battle Trojans,
men of Argas? Why did he muster an army, lead us here,
that son of Atreus? Why, why in the world if not
for Helen with her loose and lustrous hair?
Are they the only men alive who love their wives,
those sons of Atreus? Never! Any decent man,
a man with sense, loves his own, cares for his own
as deeply as I, I loved that woman with all my heart,
though I won her like a trophy with my spear…
But now that he’s torn my honor from my hands,
robbed me, lied to me – don’t let him try me now.
I know him too well – he’ll never win me over!

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 409-420. Achilles questions the motives for the Trojan war, as Odysseus attempts to bring him back to the fighting. If the war is for Helen, are Agamemnon and Menelaus the only men alive who love their wives, Achilles asks Odysseus? Any decent man loves his own, he says, accusing Agamemnon of robbing him of his honor and the woman he loves with all his heart, Briseis.

Why, any man will accept the blood-price paid
for a brother murdered, a child done to death.
And the murderer lives on in his own country –
the man has paid enough, and the injured kinsman
curbs his pride, his smoldering, vengeful spirit,
once he takes the price.
You – the gods have planted
a cruel, relentless fury in your chest! All for a girl.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 9, lines 771-777. Great Ajax cannot fathom why Achilles is so full of rage and refuses to forgive and end the quarrel with Agamemnon. He points out that people put aside their differences and curb their pride when they accept blood money for a murdered brother or child. But not Achilles, in whose heart the gods have put a relentless fury – all over the girl Briseis.

Even so, Patroclus, fight disaster off the ships,
fling yourself at the Trojans full force –
before they gut our hulls with leaping fire
and tear away the beloved day of our return.
But take this command to heart – obey it to the end.
So you can win great honor, great glory for me
in the eyes of all the Argive ranks, and they,
they’ll send her back, my lithe and lovely girl,
and top it off with troves of glittering gifts.
Once you have whipped the enemy from the fleet
you must come back, Patroclus. Even if Zeus
the thundering lord of Hera lets you seize your glory,
you must not burn for war against these Trojans,
madmen lusting for battle – not without me –
you will only make my glory that much less.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 16, lines 92-106. When Achilles lends his armor to Patroclus, he tells tells him that Patroclus can win great honor and glory for him and he will get back his "lithe and lovely girl" Briseis. But Achilles warns him that when he drives the Trojans away from the Greek ships, he must come back, even if Zeus allows him seize this glory. If Patroclus goes on to pursue battle against the Trojans without Achilles, that would make lessen Achilles’s glory, he tells Patrocles. The fact that Achilles is more interested in his own glory than his friend’s safety only serves to demonstrate Achilles’s major character flaw, excessive pride.

Often the armies brought this matter up against me –
they would revile me in public. But I am not to blame!
Zeus and Fate and the Fury stalking through the night,
they are the ones who drove that savage madness in my heart,
that day in assembly when I seized Achilles’ prize –
on my own authority, true, but what could I do?
A god impels all things to their fulfil1ment.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 99-105. Speaking with Achilles at an assembly of the Achaean army, Agamemnon says that the armies have oftened reviled him for seizing Briseis from Achilles. But he was not responsible, he claims, rather it was the god Zeus who drove him to do this madness. He argues that the fate of man is controlled by Zeus and the gods.

Seven tripods hauled from the tents, as promised,
twenty burnished cauldrons, a dozen massive stallions.
They quickly brought out women, flawless, skilled in crafts,
seven, and Briseis in all her beauty made the eighth.
Then Odysseus weighed out ten full bars of gold.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 287-291. Agamemnon tries to make amends for taking Briseis from Achilles. Here she is used like a pawn between the two men, being measured in gifts of cauldrons, stallions, women and gold to assuage Achilles. Odysseus weighs out ten gold bars in payment to Achilles from Agamemnon.

And so Brisets returned, like golden Aphrodite,
but when she saw Patroclus lying torn by the bronze
she flung herself on his body, gave a piercing cry
and with both hands clawing deep at her breasts,
her soft throat and lovely face, she sobbed,
a woman like a goddess in her grief.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 333-338. When Briseis sees Patroclus’s dead body she weeps. In a simile she is likened to the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite and is described as having a lovely face and soft throat.

Patroclus –
dearest joy of my heart, my harrowed, broken heart!
I left you alive that day I left these shelters,
now I come back to find you fallen, captain of armies!
So grief gives way to grief, my life one endless sorrow!
The husband to whom my father and noble mother gave me,
I saw him torn by the sharp bronze before our city,
and my three brothers – a single mother bore us:
my brothers, how I loved you! –
you all went down to death on the same day…
But you, Patroclus, you would not let me weep,
not when the swift Achilles cut my husband down,
not when he plundered the lordly Mynes’ city –
not even weep! No, again and again you vowed
you’d make me godlike Achilles’ lawful, wedded wife,
you would sail me west in your warships, home to Phthia
and there with the Myrmidons hold my marriage feast.
So now I mourn your death – I will never stop –
you were always kind.

– Homer

The Iliad, Book 19, lines 338-356. Briseis speaks for the only time in The Iliad. She clearly had a close relationship with Patroclus, whose great kindness she pays a touching tribute to. Standing over the dead Greek warrior’s body, she reveals that he vowed to make her the wife of godlike (simile) Achilles. He also comforted her when her husband and three brothers whom she loved were cut down in war. Behind the ferocious warrior, there was a gentle heart.
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