CHRYSEIS

In Greek mythology, 'Chryseis' (Greek: Χρύσηίς, 'Khrysēís') was a Trojan woman, the daughter of Chryses. Chryseis, her apparent name in the ''Iliad'', means simply "Chryses' daughter"; later writers give her real name as 'Astynome'.^[1]
In the first book of the ''Iliad'', Agamemnon takes her as a war prize and refuses to allow her father, a priest of Apollo, to ransom her. An oracle of Apollo then sends a plague sweeping through the Greek armies, and Agamemnon is forced to give Chryseis back in order to end it, so Agamemnon sends Odysseus to return Chryseis to her father. Agamemnon compensates himself for this loss by taking Briseis from Achilles, an act that offends Achilles, who refuses to take further part in the Trojan War.
A later Greek legend, preserved in Hyginus' ''Fabulae'', states that she had a son by Agamemnon.
In medieval literature, Chryseis is developed into the character Cressida.

Contents

Other Characters

Notes

Other Characters

Chryseis is also the name of two minor figures in Greek mythology

★ 'Chryseis', one of the Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys

★ 'Chryseis', one of the daughters of Thespius. She bore Heracles a son, Onesippus.

Notes

1. ''Scholia on the Iliad'' 1.392; Hesychius, ''Lexicon''; Malalas, ''Chronographia'' 100; Eustathius of Thessalonica, ''Commentary on the Iliad'' 1.123.9 van der Valk.