Homer's 'Unwilling' Women Are No Longer Quiet In 'The Silence Of The Girls'
Told from the perspective of Achilles' concubine, Briseis, Pat Barker's The Silence Of The Girls brings new life to the women of Homer's Iliad.
"Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles ... How the epithets pile up," begins The Silence of the Girls, Pat Barker's tart retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Achilles' concubine, Briseis.
"We never called him any of those things," she continues, "we called him 'the butcher.'"
In the , the men are superlative. They insist on their own magnificence, even in defeat.
