The Silence of the Girls: Chapter 13 Summary & Analysis

At Myron’s cremation, all the Greeks discuss other men who have fallen ill. After a week, so many are dying that they don’t get proper funerals: to hide the plague from the Trojans, the Greeks don’t cremate the bodies or cremate them in groups. Briseis notices the men looking at the women strangely; Iphis speculates that it’s because the women aren’t dying. Some women have died, but not nearly as many as the men. Briseis feels no guilt at having prayed for plague, even as she dislikes the end of “so many young lives.” Not only are they at war, but also Briseis doesn’t believe her own prayers carried any weight with Apollo—the god is responding to an insult.

After nine days, Briseis is serving wine to Achilles and Patroclus in Achilles’s quarters when Achilles demands to know why “he” doesn’t act and threatens to call an assembly. Patroclus points out that “he” hasn’t called one. Achilles says that “he” hasn’t called the assembly because he knows he has to redress the insult to Apollo by returning “the girl.” Then Achilles suggests they find a soothsayer to make the argument. Afterwards, Achilles rants about Agamemnon’s many flaws. Patroclus listens silently, seeming at ease except that his jaw muscle is twitching.

After Achilles goes out, Patroclus tells Briseis to sit down and drink some wine. They are so friendly now that Briseis sometimes has trouble remembering Patroclus helped destroy Lyrnessus. When he hands her a cup, she asks whether he’ll stay up for Achilles. He says he probably will. Patroclus seems to hate the nights Achilles meets his mother (Thetis), though Briseis doesn’t know why. She asks whether Achilles and his mother are close, and Patroclus says he isn’t sure: she left when Achilles was seven and now looks younger than her son. When Briseis suggests the parting must have been difficult for a mother, Patroclus demurs: Achilles’s mother was forced into her marriage and seemed to find “it all a bit disgusting”—a judgment she passed to Achilles, in case Briseis hasn’t noticed.

Patroclus says that Briseis reminds Achilles of his mother (Thetis). When Briseis balks, Patroclus suggests she should take it as a compliment, since Achilles’s mother is a goddess. Then Patroclus suggests he could get Achilles to marry Briseis. When Briseis says that owners don’t marry slaves, Patroclus says they sometimes do—and Achilles, a prince with a goddess mother, has no reason to marry for status. He suggests: "We could all sail home together.” Briseis forces herself not to retort that Patroclus destroyed her home. Later, though, she contemplates Patroclus’s suggestion: it would be repulsive to marry her brothers’ murderer, but marrying Achilles would make her free again. Anyone who doesn’t understand the attraction of that has never been a slave.