Briseis

Her role as a status symbol is at the heart of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon that initiates the plot of Homer's epic.

She was married to Mynes, a son of the King of Lyrnessus, until the Achaeans sacked her city and she was given to Achilles shortly before the events of the poem.

[7] In the Iliad, Achilles led the assault on Lyrnessus during the Trojan War, and slew several of the men in her family.

In the Mycenaean Greek society described in the Iliad, captive women like Briseis were slaves and could be traded amongst the warriors.

According to Book 1 of the Iliad, when Agamemnon was compelled by Apollo to give up his own slave, Chryseis, he demanded Briseis as compensation.

[citation needed] According to Robert Bell, following his death, Briseis "was given to one of Achilles's comrades-at-arms just as his armor had been", after the fall of Troy.

[13] In medieval romances, starting with the Roman de Troie, Briseis becomes Briseida[14] and is the daughter of Calchas.

Briseis, from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii , fresco, 1st century AD, now in the National Archaeological Museum, Naples
Briseis and Phoenix , red-figure kylix , c. 490 BC, Louvre (G 152) [ 1 ]
Briseis smelling a flower, red-figure pottery, ca. 520–510 BC, British Museum
Worn papyrus fragment. Two men and a woman are drawn in reddish ink.
Abduction of Briseis, 4th century