Chryseis
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In Greek mythology, Chryseis (Greek: Χρύσηίς, Khrysēís) was a Trojan woman, the daughter of Chryses. Chryseis, her apparent name in the Iliad, means simply "Chryses' daughter"; later writers give her real name as Astynome.[1]
In the first book of the Iliad, Agamemnon takes her as a war prize and refuses to allow her father, a priest of Apollo, to ransom her. An oracle of Apollo then sends a plague sweeping through the Greek armies and Agamemnon is forced to give Chryseis back in order to end it. Agamemnon compensates himself for this loss by taking Briseis from Achilles, an act that offends Achilles, who refuses to take further part in the Trojan War.
A later Greek legend, preserved in Hyginus' Fabulae, states that she had a son by Agamemnon.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Scholia on the Iliad 1.392; Hesychius, Lexicon; Malalas, Chronographia 100; Eustathius of Thessalonica, Commentary on the Iliad 1.123.9 van der Valk.
