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Briseis (/ b r aɪ ˈ s iː ɪ s /; Ancient Greek: Βρισηίς, romanized: Brīsēís, lit. 'daughter of Briseus', pronounced [briːsɛːís] ), also known as Hippodameia ( Ἱπποδάμεια , [hippodámeːa] ), [ 2 ] is a significant character in the Iliad .
Briseis, a woman captured in the sack of Lyrnessus, a small town in the territory of Troy, and awarded to Achilles as a prize. Agamemnon takes her from Achilles in Book 1 and Achilles withdraws from battle as a result. Chryseis, Chryses’ daughter, taken as a war prize by Agamemnon. Clymene, servant of Helen along with her mother Aethra.
The plot begins when Greeks led by Achilles sack Lyrnessus, describing the looting and burning of the city, the massacre of its men and the abduction of its women including Briseis, the childless wife of king Mynes. When the women are handed out to the leaders of the Greek raiders, Briseis, as beautiful and of royal blood, is given to Achilles.
When Agamemnon takes Briseis from Achilles, he takes away a portion of the kleos he had earned. Achilles's shield, crafted by Hephaestus and given to him by his mother, Thetis, bears an image of stars in the centre. The stars conjure profound images of the place of a single man, no matter how heroic, in the perspective of the entire cosmos.
A characteristic of Homer's style is the use of epithets, as in "rosy-fingered" Dawn or "swift-footed" Achilles.Epithets are used because of the constraints of the dactylic hexameter (i.e., it is convenient to have a stockpile of metrically fitting phrases to add to a name) and because of the oral transmission of the poems; they are mnemonic aids to the singer and the audience alike.
In Greek mythology, Pisidice (/ p aɪ ˈ s ɪ d ɪ s iː / py-SEE-dee-see; Ancient Greek: Πεισιδίκη, romanized: Peisidíkē) is a native of Methymna, an ancient Greek city state in the north of the island of Lesbos in the northeastern Aegean Sea. Pisidice is notable for her love for the hero Achilles who waged war against her homeland ...
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In classical Greek the word aoidos, "singer", is an agent noun derived from the verb aeidein (ὰείδειν) or adein (ᾄδειν), "to sing". It occurs several times in varying forms in the Iliad and Odyssey in relation to poetry: [3] Iliad 18.490–496 (on the Shield of Achilles): a wedding song, hymenaios, with pipes, lyres, and dancing