The two novels together, however, form a fuller picture of the life of Briseis. At the start of The Women of Troy, Achilles is dead and Briseis is pregnant with his child. Achilles had ensured that in the event of his death, Briseis would marry his loyal follower Alcimus.
We know Achilles wasn't much of a family man. He spent much of his life out in the battlefields, and he never married or settled in any one place. Some stories even suggest he might have been gay. However, we do know that Achilles had one son, a boy named Pyrrhus Neoptolemus.
Despite rumors of his homosexual tendencies, Achilles did have a child—a son, born from a brief affair during the Trojan War. The Greek warrior Achilles is never portrayed in the Greek histories as a married man.
Who was Achilles' love interest? Achilles love interest is Briseis. Although he originally took her as a prize, Achilles seems to love her. She also loves him and hopes to marry him.
Though never specified it can be inferred that Patroclus is gay. Deidama was heartbroken and jealous of Achilles's love for Patroclus, Deidameia summons Patroclus to have sex with her, which he does; he notes that she seemed to want something more from him, which he was unable to provide. .
Did Achilles have a male lover? As a boy, Achilles develops a close relationship with another boy named Patroclus, who joins Achilles' household as an exile, having accidentally killed another child. They become friends and possibly lovers.
She soon took it upon herself to prepare Achilles for the afterlife. According to Robert Bell, following his death, Briseis "was given to one of Achilles' comrades-at-arms just as his armor had been", after the fall of Troy.
Even though she was a war prize, Achilles and Briseis fell in love with each other, and Achilles may have gone to Troy intending to spend much time in his tent with her, as was portrayed in the movie.
She eventually becomes Patroclus's closest friend and falls in love with him, offering to have his children even as he remains with Achilles. Though Patroclus refuses, he wonders if he could have loved her if he'd never met Achilles. Briseis is extremely beautiful, deeply intelligent, and funny.
Plato for his part puts in the mouth of Phaedrus the opinion that Achilles and Patroclus were lovers (Symp. 179e–180b), though Phaedrus, expressly refuting Aeschylus, specifies that Achilles, who was younger than Patroclus, was the young beloved.
Achilles was cremated and his ashes buried in the same urn as those of his friend Patroclus. This was well, because it was said that Achilles and Patroclus shared the love that dares not speak its name.
In some versions of the myth, Achilles is as young as 11 when the Trojan War begins. In others, he is as old as 20. The Iliad covers only a few weeks of the war, near the time of Achilles' death. This puts his age in The Iliad at anywhere from 21 to 30 years old.
AGAMEMNON Takes Briseis
Achilles, having given up Briseis, would withdraw himself and his army from the battlefield. The loss of the greatest of the Achaean warrior greatly depicted the strength of the Achaean force, and the Trojans were quick to take advantage. The Achaeans now faced defeat in the war.
According to Patroclus, Achilles let Agamemnon take her because if Agamemnon violates her, his army will despise him, since she belongs to Achilles.
The name grew more popular, becoming common soon after the seventh century BC and was also turned into the female form Ἀχιλλεία (Achilleía), attested in Attica in the fourth century BC (IG II² 1617) and, in the form Achillia, on a stele in Halicarnassus as the name of a female gladiator fighting an "Amazon".
An elaborate description is given of Achilles' new armor. Achilles calls the Achaean troops to an assembly where he renounces his quarrel with Agamemnon. Agamemnon blames Zeus for their quarrel, returns Briseis to Achilles and presents him with gifts.
Patroclus and Thetis' Son
Once Thetis gave into marrying Patroclus, she became determined to have a child with him.
'' Achilles cried over the loss of Briseis, partly out of anger that Agamemnon dishonored him, but more so because he planned to keep her as more than a spoil of war: she was to become his wife when they returned home. Achilles is also quite angry.
After all the violence and heartbreak throughout the novel, it would have been nice to have a happy ending. However, in the end, as Achilles is dying, he thinks about being able to see Patroclus in Hades and finds rest in that. But Patroclus is never buried; therefore, the two will never be able to be together again.
To build a relationship between Patroclus and Briseis, Miller draws on the few lines Briseis has in The Iliad when she is mourning Patroclus' death; Briseis laments, “Patroclus- dearest joy of my heart, my harrowed, broken heart” (Homer, Id. 19.338-339), and “So now I mourn your death… you were always kind” (Homer, Id.
Paris himself, soon after, received a fatal wound from an arrow shot by the rival archer Philoctetes.
Centuries later, various Greek texts presented Achilles and Patroclus as pederastic lovers (a common practice in Greek society where an older male and younger male form a sexual relationship).
Family. Patroclus was the son of Menoetius by either Philomela or Polymele, Sthenele, Periopis, or lastly Damocrateia. His only sibling was Myrto, mother of Eucleia by Heracles.
When Achilles learns of the death of Patroklos, he bursts into tears, tearing his hair and throwing himself on the ground. His sorrowful lament is heard by his mother, Thetis, and she comes to comfort him. She points out that if Achilles avenges Patroklos, he himself will be killed.