For the princely bride price of four oxen, Briseis had been traded off to be married to an old man whose touch she suffered with her eyes shut. She had been childless for eight years, then the golden-haired invaders came. She was rescued from the flames by Achilles whom she worshipped on sight, and was taken as his captive. From the beginning he made it clear to her that she was not a slave to him, but she was to proudly call herself his captive, and was to live only to reflect his glory in her eyes.

In Achilles' household, Briseis was to stand in the place of his wife as the household priestess to pray to Athena for her captor's victory. That was a source of conflict between Briseis and Achilles because she agreed to pray for his safety but not for his victory. Her defiance earned her a spanking but also his grudging respect.

Achilles served the great king of kings Agamemnon, who took the woman Chryseis from Achilles once before. Briseis was content as Achilles's captive, but then Agamemnon assaulted her, and she was narrowly rescued by Agamemnon's brother Menelaus. But this was just the start of her troubles.

Jackie Rose had taken the story of the Illiad, and using classical sources like Homer, Virgil, and Euripides, and reweaved her own myth of the Trojan captive/slave-girl Briseis. This is a story of loss and gain and loss again. The story is listed as erotica but not much erotica devotes so many pages to such a very involved and tangled plot.
Reviewed By: Allie
© 07 2004