If “Silence becomes a woman,” I’m glad Pat Barker decided to speak!
Queen of Lyrnessus, Briseis is the spoil of a war neither she not her kin wanted or encouraged. Instead, she is caught in the most epic of battles, the one waged against Troy by angry Greeks enraged by the kidnapping of the beautiful Helen, wife of Menelaus. Agamemnon, Menelaus's brother, is commander in chief of the Greek army, but Achilles is the real leader, the unbeatable warrior who inspires soldiers from both sides, Greeks and Trojans alike. And Briseis is simply another prize awarded to him after he has slain sixty men to conquer her city, including her father and four brother's.
Stripped of her rank, Briseis becomes Achilles's slave and joins the other captive women inside the Greek compound, serving and obeying her master in and out of bed. It is a life of routine, rape, pain, frustration and bitterness that she mutely shares with every other broken woman in the camp, while observing the men surrounding her. One stands out among the rest, Patroclus, and not because of his special relationship with Achilles. He alone shows an interest for her as a person, so the story …
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