The Silence of the Girls

“As told in The Iliad, the Trojan War was a quarrel between men – over Helen, stolen from her home and spirited to Troy, a voiceless female icon of male desire. But what of the women in this story, silenced by their fates?” Captivating historic war writer Pat Barker ( Regeneration and Noonday trilogies) decides to give a voice to the Troy queens abducted and shipped to

Greek camps, when warrior Achilles takes their city. Our fierce narrator is Queen Briseis, 19, awarded as “prize” to the warrior himself, who slew her brothers. Some of the women grow to love their captors. Achilles is “the most beautiful man alive” with his tiger-striped skin. His mother was sea goddess Thetis, and water-loving Briseis’ briny smell makes him crave maternal affection, as he clings to her like a baby. When Agamemnon angers the Gods by refusing to release his concubine Chryseis – the daughter of one of Apollo’s priests, who has begged her return – a terrible plague descends. Agamemnon will only release her if Achilles gives him Briseis. “When they [the people] weren’t blaming the Gods, they were blaming me. I was Helen now,” realises Briseis.