The Silence of the Girls Character Analysis

Briseis

Briseis is the queen of the Trojan city Lyrnessus. Her father gave her in marriage to the king of Lyrnessus, Mynes, when she was 14 years old. When the Greek army besieging Troy sacks… read analysis of Briseis

Achilles

Achilles is the son of the human King Peleus and sea-goddess Thetis. He is a hot-tempered and egotistical man—and the greatest of the Greek warriors fighting at Troy. When Achilles was a boy, Thetis… read analysis of Achilles

Patroclus

Patroclus is second-in-command and closest companion to Achilles. At age 10, Patroclus—who has a terrible temper—killed his best friend after the friend accused him of cheating at dice. Though a prince, Patroclus was exiled… read analysis of Patroclus

Agamemnon

Agamemnon is the most powerful commander among the Greek forces fighting at Troy, though not the best fighter. He sacrificed his own daughter to the gods in an attempt to get good winds for the… read analysis of Agamemnon

Thetis

Thetis is a sea goddess. The other gods forced her to marry human king Peleus despite her disgust for humanity and sex. When her and Peleus’s son Achilles was born mortal, she was preemptively heartbroken… read analysis of Thetis

Priam

Priam, the elderly king of Troy, is husband to Hecuba and father to Hector, Paris, and Polyxena, among others. When Briseis is an adolescent, she travels to Troy to stay with her… read analysis of Priam

Nestor

Nestor is the elderly Greek king of Pylos. The Greek warriors at Troy respect him for his good advice. After Achilles refuses to fight for the Greeks any longer, Nestor persuades Achilles’s beloved friend Patroclus… read analysis of Nestor

Odysseus

Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca, is a snide and clever man known among the Greek warriors at Troy for his shrewdness. He deeply misses his wife Penelope and wants to return home, though that… read analysis of Odysseus

Ajax

The greatest Greek warrior after his cousin Achilles, Ajax is a tall, blond, and rather unintelligent man who has a young son by his Trojan enslaved woman Tecmessa, who claims to have fallen… read analysis of Ajax

Chryseis

Chryseis, the daughter of a Trojan priest of Apollo, is a reserved, religious 15-year-old girl who wants to become a priestess herself. After Greek soldiers capture and enslave Chryseis, the Greek high commander Agamemnon… read analysis of Chryseis

The Priest of Apollo

Father to enslaved 15-year-old Chryseis, the Trojan priest of Apollo ventures into the Greek war camp to ransom his daughter from Greek high commander Agamemnon, who has enslaved her. After Agamemnon refuses the… read analysis of The Priest of Apollo

Alcimus

A young follower of Greek warrior Achilles, Alcimus develops a crush on enslaved Trojan queen Briseis and tries to do favors for her. After Achilles learns that Briseis is pregnant with his child, he… read analysis of Alcimus

Helen

Helen is the stunningly beautiful Greek queen whose abduction by the Trojan prince Paris started the Trojan War. Because the Greeks use Helen’s abduction as a pretext to sack and loot the Trojan plain, the… read analysis of Helen

Iphis

Iphis is an enslaved Trojan captive that Achilles gives to Patroclus as a gift. She falls in love with Patroclus during her captivity. She also becomes a good friend to Briseis. After Patroclus dies… read analysis of Iphis

Tecmessa

Tecmessa is an enslaved Trojan captive given to the Greek warrior Ajax. She claims to have fallen in love with Ajax and has a son by him. Initially, Briseis finds Tecmessa’s professed love for… read analysis of Tecmessa

Ismene

Ismene is an enslaved woman in the household of Mynes and Briseis in Lyrnessus whom Mynes has impregnated. Briseis sees in Ismene her own fate if Lyrnessus falls to the Greeks. It is implied that… read analysis of Ismene

Uza

Uza is a Trojan captive given as a “prize” slave to Odysseus. Whereas many of the enslaved Trojan women deeply resent the rapes that their captors inflict on them, Uza—a former sex worker who… read analysis of Uza

Hector

Prince Hector, the son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, is the greatest of the warriors defending Troy. He kills Patroclus while Patroclus is fighting in Achilles’s armor. Afterward, Achilles kills Hector and… read analysis of Hector

Minor Characters

Automedon

Automedon is a humorless and protective follower of Achilles. He serves as Achilles’s charioteer after Patroclus is killed.

Ritsa

Ritsa, like Briseis, is a highborn Trojan woman whom the Greeks capture during the sack of Lyrnessus. She is given to the Greek physician Machaon as an enslaved woman and works in the Greek army’s medical tents.

Hecuba

Hecuba, the elderly queen of Troy, is wife to Priam and mother to Hector, Paris, and Polyxena, among others. After Troy falls, Odysseus takes her as a slave.

Myron

Myron is one of Achilles’s followers and the first Greek soldier to die of plague after the priest of Apollo curses the Greek camp. The Trojan women tasked with preparing his body for cremation mock his corpse because he preyed on many of them sexually.

Mynes

Mynes is the Trojan king of Lyrnessus and husband to Briseis. Achilles kills him during the sack of Lyrnessus.

Polyxena

Polyxena is the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Pyrrhus sacrifices her at Agamemnon’s behest to propitiate Achilles’s ghost after the fall of Troy.

Pyrrhus

Achilles’s 15-year-old son Pyrrhus arrives to fight at Troy only to learn that his father has already died in battle. Pyrrhus kills King Priam during the sack of Troy and sacrifices Polyxena afterward.

Paris

Paris, son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba, is the cowardly Trojan prince who abducted beautiful Greek Queen Helen, thus starting the Trojan War. Though Paris mostly avoids the fighting, he is the one to kill Greek warrior Achilles, shooting him in the back with an arrow from afar.

Hecamede

Hecamede is a Trojan enslaved woman given as a “prize” to Nestor.