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Patroclus
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 Greek ships when they first sailed for Troy. A venal, cowardly, and egotistical man, he becomes sexually obsessed with his 15-year-old enslaved woman Chryseis. When Chryseis’s father, a priest of Apollo, attempts to ransom her, Agamemnon threatens the man, humiliates him, and sends him away. When a plague strikes the Greek camp, everyone believes that Apollo is punishing them for Agamemnon’s humiliation of Apollo’s priest. Greek warrior Achilles publicly pressures Agamemnon to return Chryseis to her father; though Agamemnon agrees, he appropriates Achilles’ “prize” enslaved woman Briseis in retaliation. That night, he rapes and humiliates Briseis. When Achilles, deeply insulted by Agamemnon’s behavior, refuses to fight for the Greek army, the Greeks suffer massive casualties. Eventually, other Greek leaders—primarily Nestor and Odysseus—convince Agamemnon to offer Achilles some treasure and Briseis to get him to fight again. When Achilles refuses the offer, Agamemnon, blaming Briseis, beats and rapes her. Achilles joins the fighting again after his beloved friend Patroclus dies fighting the Trojan Prince Hector. In response, Agamemnon returns Briseis to him and publicly, sacrilegiously swears to the gods that he never had sexual contact with her. After Achilles dies in battle and Troy falls, Agamemnon becomes obsessed with appeasing Achilles’s ghost and sacrifices 15-year-old Trojan princess Polyxena as an offering on his burial mound. Afterward, narrator Briseis contemptuously thinks that Agamemnon is a man with no redeeming qualities who has learned nothing from his experiences.
Agamemnon Quotes in The Silence of the Girls
The The Silence of the Girls quotes below are all either spoken by Agamemnon or refer to Agamemnon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
This is what free people never understand. A slave isn’t a person who’s being treated as a thing. A slave is a thing, as much in her own estimation as in anybody else’s.
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Chapter 8
Quotes
Everybody in the arena was moved by the old man’s tears—and by the size of the ransom he’d brought with him. Sentiment and greed—the Greeks love a sentimental story almost as much as they love gold.
Chapter 15
Quotes
“None of that gives him the right to take another man’s prize of honour. It doesn’t belong to him; he hasn’t earnt it.”
There was a lot more, but I’d stopped listening. Honour, courage, loyalty, reputation—all those big words being bandied about—but for me there was only one word, one very small word: it.
Chapter 17
Quotes
I was Helen now.
Chapter 18
Quotes
What I came away with was a sense of Helen seizing control of her own story. She was so isolated in that city, so powerless—even at my age, I could see that—and those tapestries were a way of saying: I’m here. Me. A person, not just an object to be looked at and fought over.
Chapter 19
Quotes
This isn’t about you.
Chapter 21
Quotes
I heard Odysseus talking as I approached, laughing at the idea that Agamemnon hadn’t laid a finger on me. “It’s not his finger I’m worried about,” he sniggered. Then he caught sight of me and snapped, “Where’s your veil?”
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Chapter 25
Quotes
“I might just get his knife in my guts.”
Nestor smiled. “Not you.”
“You’re sure about that, are you? I wish I was. But, then, I know what it’s like to kill a friend and spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
Get the entire The Silence of the Girls LitChart as a printable PDF.
Agamemnon Quotes in The Silence of the Girls
The The Silence of the Girls quotes below are all either spoken by Agamemnon or refer to Agamemnon. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 5
Quotes
This is what free people never understand. A slave isn’t a person who’s being treated as a thing. A slave is a thing, as much in her own estimation as in anybody else’s.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 8
Quotes
Everybody in the arena was moved by the old man’s tears—and by the size of the ransom he’d brought with him. Sentiment and greed—the Greeks love a sentimental story almost as much as they love gold.
Chapter 15
Quotes
“None of that gives him the right to take another man’s prize of honour. It doesn’t belong to him; he hasn’t earnt it.”
There was a lot more, but I’d stopped listening. Honour, courage, loyalty, reputation—all those big words being bandied about—but for me there was only one word, one very small word: it.
Chapter 17
Quotes
I was Helen now.
Chapter 18
Quotes
What I came away with was a sense of Helen seizing control of her own story. She was so isolated in that city, so powerless—even at my age, I could see that—and those tapestries were a way of saying: I’m here. Me. A person, not just an object to be looked at and fought over.
Chapter 19
Quotes
This isn’t about you.
Chapter 21
Quotes
I heard Odysseus talking as I approached, laughing at the idea that Agamemnon hadn’t laid a finger on me. “It’s not his finger I’m worried about,” he sniggered. Then he caught sight of me and snapped, “Where’s your veil?”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 25
Quotes
“I might just get his knife in my guts.”
Nestor smiled. “Not you.”
“You’re sure about that, are you? I wish I was. But, then, I know what it’s like to kill a friend and spend the rest of your life regretting it.”
