The Silence of the Girls: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

The next morning, Briseis carries an anesthetic potion concocted by Achilles to Myron, who is sick and hallucinating. When she checks on him again later, he has vomited on himself and buboes are swelling his crotch area. The next morning, when Briseis is tending Myron, Achilles and Patroclus visit. Achilles is visibly shocked by Myron’s condition. He gently touches Myron’s feet, surprising Briseis, who thinks that Achilles must see something in his unprepossessing “comrade” that she doesn’t. Soon Myron dies. Achilles tells Patroclus they should burn Myron’s corpse and possessions. Patroclus suggests it won’t do any good now, but Achilles points out they have no other option.

In Greek and Trojan cultures, women tend to dead bodies. The Greek men carry Myron’s corpse into the laundry hut, but then they leave the female slaves to prepare him. Briseis and several laundry workers—whom Myron worked hard and exploited sexually—prepare the body. One woman expresses sympathy when she sees Myron’s buboes, but another woman suggests that he had it coming.

Achilles, Patroclus, and Achilles’s two main attendants Alcimus and Automedon enter the laundry hut. Patroclus explains they have brought funeral clothing and coins for Myron’s eyes. Achilles stares at the women silently, and Briseis, with primal satisfaction, thinks that he is finally perceiving them as Trojan enemies rather than mere female slaves. When he leaves, Briseis guesses that he believes Myron’s corpse will be safe with the women not only because the women fear punishment but also because women are pious. Yet as soon as the men leave, one woman grabs Myron’s penis and jiggles it at the others, causing hysterical laughter. Briseis is sure that the men outside hear, but they don’t return.