Chryseis
Daughter of Apollo's priest Chryses whose capture by Agamemnon triggered the plague and quarrel that opens the Iliad.
The Legend of Chryseis
She is the reason the Iliad begins with a plague — her father prayed to Apollo and the god shot arrows of pestilence into the Greek camp for nine days. Chryseis was captured by Agamemnon during a raid. Her father Chryses, priest of Apollo, came with ransom. Agamemnon refused. Chryses prayed, and Apollo sent a plague. When Agamemnon was forced to return Chryseis, he took Briseis from Achilles as compensation. Achilles withdrew from battle. Without Achilles, the Greeks began losing. Patroclus fought in his place and died. This chain — Chryseis to plague to quarrel to withdrawal to Patroclus's death — is the Iliad's engine. The entire epic pivots on the capture of one woman.
Parents
Chryses
Symbols
Explore Further
Chryses
🗡 heroPriesthood, Apollo
Priest of Apollo whose daughter's captivity triggered the plague that opened the Iliad
Chryseis
🗡 heroCaptive who caused the quarrel of the Iliad
Chryseis was the priest's daughter whose captivity by Agamemnon and forced return sparked the quarrel with Achilles that drives the entire Iliad.
Briseis
🗡 herocaptivity
Captured woman taken from Achilles by Agamemnon, whose seizure caused Achilles to withdraw from the Trojan War.
Briseis
🗡 heroWar prize whose seizure caused Achilles' withdrawal
Briseis was the captive woman taken from Achilles by Agamemnon — the cause of Achilles' wrath that nearly destroyed the Greek army at Troy.
Neoptolemus
🗡 heroSon of Achilles
Neoptolemus was Achilles' fierce son, brought to Troy because a prophecy declared the city could not fall without him.
Hesione
🗡 herocaptivity
Trojan princess chained to a rock as sacrifice to a sea monster, rescued by Heracles, then given to Telamon as a war prize.
Aethra
🗡 heroMotherhood, Captivity, Loyalty
Princess of Troezen, mother of Theseus, who became a captive slave in Troy.
Hecuba
🗡 herovengeance
Queen of Troy who survived the fall, witnessed the sacrifice of Polyxena, and took savage revenge on the man who murdered her son Polydorus.
Busiris
🗡 heroNone recorded
Egyptian king who sacrificed strangers to Zeus until Heracles broke free and killed him
Diomedes
🗡 heroKing of Argos who wounded gods
Diomedes was the only mortal in the Iliad to wound two Olympian gods in a single day.
Hecuba
🗡 heroQueen of Troy
Hecuba was the queen of Troy who watched her husband, sons, and city destroyed — embodying the total devastation that war inflicts on women.
Meleager
🗡 heroHero whose life was bound to a burning log
The leader of the Calydonian Boar Hunt whose fate was tied to a charred brand — when it burned out, he died.