Ancient and modern voices of Briseis: a feminist critique

Abstract This article examines from a feminist perspective the representation of Briseis in Homer’s Iliad, Ovid’s Heroides 3, Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls, and Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles. First, it shows how Homer’s Briseis, in her single speech of lament over Patroclus, critiques masculine heroic values yet, nonetheless, conveys her own lack of importance and agency and reinforces an androcentric, patriarchal, and aristocratic narrative. Second, it analyzes how Ovid, even as he gives Briseis a more developed voice and psychology, removes her Homeric dignity and makes her into a one-note character entirely submissive to her enslaver Achilles. Third, it argues that Barker alone makes Briseis into a rounded person narrating her complex relationships with other women as well as with the men in her life. An addendum contrasts Barker’s painful but authentic portrayal of Briseis with her rather fantastical treatment in Miller’s more popular novel.