In Trojan War mythology, Briseis was the Greek captive awarded to Achilles after the raid on Lyrnessus.
Briseis appears most prominently in Homer’s Iliad, where she is described as a captive woman from the city of Lyrnessus. Achilles received her as a war prize after the city was attacked, and she became closely associated with the dispute that drives the poem’s central conflict.
Agamemnon was forced to return Chryseis to her father, a priest of Apollo. To replace that loss, he took Briseis from Achilles. Achilles regarded this as a public insult and withdrew from the fighting, allowing the Trojans to gain the upper hand.
The story is often simplified as a romance, but the Iliad presents Briseis within the violent system of wartime enslavement and prize-taking. She is distinct from Chryseis, the captive whose return helps trigger Apollo’s plague.