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Chapter 29
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Silence of the Girls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mythology and Oppressed Perspectives
The Effects of Misogyny
Honor and Violence
Slavery and Dehumanization
Grief and Revenge
Summary
Analysis
While Briseis works in one of the medical tents, news is continually arriving that the battle is going well for the Greeks. The wounded soldiers sing songs in celebration, including songs about Helen, whose husband Menelaus they believe will murder her, though perhaps he’ll “fuck her first.” Then, in the late afternoon, news arrives that the battle is going worse for the Greeks and that Hector has killed Patroclus. Briseis is incredulous at the news, even though she expected Patroclus would die when she saw him that morning in Achilles’s armor.
The songs that the soldiers sing about Helen recall scenes of Achilles playing songs about martial glory and heroic death. These songs emphasize that ancient Greek culture, as represented in the novel, is fundamentally misogynistic, patriarchal, and violent in its myths, legends, and cultural practices—as evidenced by the jokes about Menelaus “fuck[ing]” his estranged wife before murdering her.
Themes
Briseis can’t leave the medical tents, but she later hears from Iphis that when Achilles heard Patroclus had died, he collapsed to the ground and started casting dirt into his own face and hair. Then, suddenly, the wind blew, clouds covered the sun, and Thetis appeared, walking up the beach toward Achilles. All the men ran for cover, terrified to see Achilles and Thetis speak.
