Just a Girl
August 13, 2021 10:32 PM   Subscribe

An essay about Briseis's story, and yours. The academic part of your brain knows that no text is about one thing. The Iliad is about a million things, but for you, right now, it’s really just a story about how women have to pay terrible prices for what men want. (cw: sexual assault)
posted by Fish, fish, are you doing your duty? (9 comments total) 37 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thank you for posting this.
posted by basalganglia at 3:22 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]


Whoa, very powerful writing there. Made me sad and mad at the same time. Thanks for sharing
posted by bitteschoen at 3:43 AM on August 14, 2021 [1 favorite]


I’m currently listening to a recent translation of The Illiad by Caroline Alexander, author of The War That Killed Achilles, and I have a lot of thoughts, most which don’t belong here, but….

I was almost-literally stunned by a message sent by Agamemnon to Achilles, which is repeated verbatim by the messenger a page or so later. Agamemnon is desperate for Achilles’ aid, and offers to give him a ton of stuff if he will just start fighting again. This includes Briseis, whose “confiscation” started the whole thing. And Agamemnon makes a big deal about how he wasn’t slept with Briseis, despite this being “the custom of men and women.” And I had to stop what I was doing and rewind and relisten to the speech and ask “it’s the custom of women to be raped after capture in war?” That seemed a little much, even for Homeric Greece.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:09 AM on August 14, 2021 [3 favorites]


Damn. DAMN.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:39 AM on August 14, 2021


I needed to read this.
posted by Hobgoblin at 9:05 AM on August 14, 2021


Thank you. That's powerful stuff.

Here's a review of Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls if, like me, you hadn't heard of it before.
posted by davidwitteveen at 5:36 PM on August 14, 2021 [2 favorites]


The Silence of the Girls should be required reading along with any translation of the Iliad. It's absolutely stunning.

And I had to stop what I was doing and rewind and relisten to the speech and ask “it’s the custom of women to be raped after capture in war?” That seemed a little much, even for Homeric Greece.

I'm not sure I understand you here, Genji-- isn't it generally known that it is the fate of women to be raped in war, and that women's bodies are considered spoils of battle?
posted by jokeefe at 12:08 AM on August 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


I'm not sure I understand you here

The construction suggests to me that it is the custom of men to rape and of women to be raped, and I don’t think women are on board with that “custom.” Maybe the original Greek is different, but I don’t think Agamemnon (or Homer) thinks about the customs or preferences of Briseis or any of the nameless enslaved women who are casually traded about during the epic (much like the attitudes of the fraternity brothers in the article, I suppose).
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:49 AM on August 15, 2021 [2 favorites]


“it’s the custom of women to be raped after capture in war?” That seemed a little much, even for Homeric Greece.

I'm not sure I understand you here, Genji-- isn't it generally known that it is the fate of women to be raped in war


“Custom” is something you do, while “fate” is something that is done to you. Using the former word to describe the latter smacks of victim-blaming.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:11 PM on August 15, 2021 [3 favorites]


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