Briseis為何流淚? 第一次，因為父母與兄弟都死於Achilles手下，她成為Achilles的戰俘的那刻；第二次，悲働Patroclus之死；第三次，哀傷Achilles之死。
The Iliad 第十九卷的這段描述，當Patroclus戰死，Briseis淚流不已:
Iliad 19.287-302
希臘文本引用出處:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0133%3Abook%3D19%3Acard%3D276
Πάτροκλέ μοι δειλῇ πλεῖστον κεχαρισμένε
θυμῷ
ζωὸν μέν σε ἔλειπον ἐγὼ κλισίηθεν ἰοῦσα,
νῦν δέ σε τεθνηῶτα κιχάνομαι ὄρχαμε λαῶν
ἂψ ἀνιοῦσ᾽: ὥς μοι δέχεται κακὸν ἐκ κακοῦ αἰεί.
ἄνδρα μὲν ᾧ ἔδοσάν με πατὴρ καὶ πότνια μήτηρ
εἶδον πρὸ πτόλιος δεδαϊγμένον ὀξέϊ χαλκῷ,
τρεῖς τε κασιγνήτους, τούς μοι μία γείνατο μήτηρ,
κηδείους, οἳ πάντες ὀλέθριον ἦμαρ ἐπέσπον.
οὐδὲ μὲν οὐδέ μ᾽ ἔασκες, ὅτ᾽ ἄνδρ᾽ ἐμὸν ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεὺς
ἔκτεινεν, πέρσεν δὲ πόλιν θείοιο Μύνητος,
κλαίειν, ἀλλά μ᾽ ἔφασκες Ἀχιλλῆος θείοιο
κουριδίην ἄλοχον θήσειν, ἄξειν τ᾽ ἐνὶ νηυσὶν
ἐς Φθίην, δαίσειν δὲ γάμον μετὰ Μυρμιδόνεσσι.
τώ σ᾽ ἄμοτον κλαίω τεθνηότα μείλιχον αἰεί.’
ὣς ἔφατο κλαίουσ᾽, ἐπὶ δὲ στενάχοντο γυναῖκες
Πάτροκλον πρόφασιν, σφῶν δ᾽ αὐτῶν κήδε᾽ ἑκάστη.
英文譯本引用出處: http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/homer/iliad19.htm
“Patroclus, you who brought the
utmost joy to my sad heart,
I left you here alive, when I went off,
taken from these huts. But now, at my return,
I find you dead, you, the people’s leader.
Again for me, as always, evil follows evil.
I saw the husband I was given to
by my father and my noble mother killed
by sharp bronze before our city. My brothers,
three of them, whom my own mother bore,
whom I loved, have all met their fatal day.
But when swift Achilles killed my husband,
you wouldn’t let me weep. You told me then
you’d make me lord Achilles’ wedded wife,
he’d take me in his ships back to Phthia,
for a marriage feast among the Myrmidons.
You were always gentle. That’s the reason
I’ll never stop this grieving for your death.”
As Briseis said this, she wept. The women joined her
in wailing for Patroclus, although each of them
had her own private sorrows.
此刻，Briseis或許是悲傷希望破滅，或許是因為感同身受，或許基於同情，或許打從內心悲傷。流淚，生命的出口。
絕處逢生，唯有真誠，若以惡治惡，只會不斷陷入暴力的惡果與惡性循環。甚麼是奴隸?就是不能愛，不能付出；那麼，自由，就是享受關愛他人，付出，與幫助別人的許多可能與選擇。薇依說到奴隸的困窘:
奴隸，無路可走，無路可逃。那麼，自由是甚麼?當我隨意行走，當我在選擇不同道路，就是自由。
le mors barrent tous les chemins
奴隸，無路可走，無路可逃。那麼，自由是甚麼?當我隨意行走，當我在選擇不同道路，就是自由。
Casey Dué, Homeric Variations on a Lament by Briseis
線上文本: http://chs.harvard.edu/wa/pageR?tn=ArticleWrapper&bdc=12&mn=1720
書中提到:
"Briseis’ lament alludes to many of her life experiences, most of which are not narrated by the Iliad except in her own voice in this one passage. As I noted already, we see her fall down weeping over the body of Patroklos, in the same way that the unnamed widow of Odyssey 8 falls down over the dead body of her warrior husband (19.284 ἀμφ' αὐτᾠ χυμένη λίγ' ἐκώκυε ~ Odyssey 8.527). The generic widow of Odyssey 8 is led off as a captive into slavery before our eyes even as she weeps. The death of Patroklos does not bring about slavery for Briseis, who is already a captive. But when she sees the body of Patroklos “torn by the sharp bronze” (δεδαϊγμένον ὀξέϊ χαλκᾠ 19.283), she recalls her own husband, who died in just this same way (δεδαϊγμένον ὀξέϊ χαλκᾠ 19.292). Briseis’ lament for Patroklos reenacts the lament that she must have performed for her husband upon learning of his death, perhaps, just before Briseis herself was led off into slavery, just as the woman in the simile of Odyssey 8. Achilles killed her husband in the sack of Lyrnessos, a raid that takes place outside of the confines of the poem but to which the poem frequently alludes. Thus in just two lines (19.283–284), traditional resonances that are contained in the phrases themselves evoke a whole range of experiences and events."
Briseis成為後來文學、繪畫與電影常出現的主題:
以下圖片與資料出處:
http://www.wikigallery.org/wiki/painting_386004/(after)-Sir-Peter-Paul-Rubens/The-Return-Of-Briseis-To-Achilles
The Return Of Briseis To Achilles
by (after) Sir Peter Paul Rubens
以下維基百科列出的清單: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Briseis
Cultural references
- In Ovid's Heroides, an apocryphal letter from Briseis to Achilles makes up the third entry, in which she reproaches him for both giving her up too easily to Agamemnon, and being tardy in gaining her return.
- In The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Briseis fell in love with Achilles and chose to leave Troy to be with him.
- The novel Daughter of Troy by Sarah B. Franklin is written from Briseis' point of view with a substantial pre-history before the events of the Iliad unfold [1].
- In Christa Wolf's novel Kassandra, aspects of the Homeric and medieval versions of Briseis' story are blended so that the character is steadily degraded from being Troilus' lover to Agamemnon's and Achilles' plaything.
- Briseis is played by Gloria Milland in the 1962 film The Fury of Achilles.
- Briseis is featured in the 2004 film Troy. In the film, Briseis (Rose Byrne) is a cousin of the Trojan princes Hector and Paris, and falls in love with Achilles (Brad Pitt). She later killsAgamemnon (Brian Cox) during the Sack of Troy; in classical mythology Agamemnon is killed by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
- In Steven Saylor's novel A Murder on the Appian Way, part of the Roma Sub Rosa series, Gordianus tries to insult someone by comparing her to Briseis, but the woman fails to understand the allusion and is therefore not insulted.
- In Orson Scott Card's Shadow of the Hegemon, Briseis is the code name for Petra Arkanian while she was being held prisoner by Achilles de Flandres.
- Glenn Hergenhahn's 2012 play Briseis is a retelling of the Iliad with Briseis at its center.
- Madeline Miller's 2011 book, Briseis is in love with Patroclus.
