Briseis

alternative Briseida · alternative Briseide · alternative Briseïs

1. Greekhuman sciencesA legendary figure who features in the Iliad; a princess granted as concubine to Achilles after the sacking of her city, Lyrnessus, before the beginning of the story.

   So Akhilleus calls an assembly — any oddness in his doing so at this juncture is mitigated by Thetis' instructions (34–6) — and much of the Book is occupied with the speeches of reconciliation and the handing over of Briseis and Agamemnon's gifts.

   1991, Mark W. Edwards, The Iliad: A Commentary: Volume V, books 17–20, Cambridge University Press, published 1995, page 234

   2 more examples

   1993 [Random House (Knopf)], Tim Parks (translator), Roberto Calasso, The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony, 1994, Random House (Vintage), page 90, And the Iliad was founded on a play of words, the substitution of a couple of letters in a name. Briseis, Chryseis. The bone of contention that triggers the poem is Briseis kallipárēos, Briseis “of the lovely cheeks”: Agamemnon wants her exchanged with, or substituted for, Chryseis kallipárēos, Chryseis “of the lovely cheeks." In Greek only two letters separate the two girls.

   The character of Briseis and the story of her relationship with Achilles stand in the background of the entire Iliad: the poem opens, literally, with Achilles' anger, which at 1.298–9 turns out to be caused by Briseis’ abduction on Agamemnon's order, and ends shortly after Achilles sleeps with her once again in his tent (24.675-6).

   2012, Marco Fantuzzi, Achilles in Love: Intertextual Studies, Oxford University Press, page 99

   Synonyms: Hippodameia

2. astronomyThe minor planet 655 Briseïs.