''The Silence of the Girls'' is a 2018 novel by English novelist

Pat Barker Patricia Mary W. Barker, (née Drake; born 8 May 1943) is an English writer and novelist. She has won many awards for her fiction, which centres on themes of memory, trauma, survival and recovery. Her work is described as direct, blunt and pl ...

. It recounts the events of the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the '' Odys ...

'' chiefly from the point of view of Briseis.

Plot summary

The plot begins when Greeks led by

Achilles In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Pele ...

sack

Lyrnessus In Greek mythology, Lyrnessus (; grc, Λυρνησσός) was a town or city in Dardania (Asia minor), inhabited by Cilicians. It was closely associated with the nearby Cilician Thebe. At the time of the Trojan War, it was said to have been ruled ...

, describing the looting and burning of the city, the massacre of its men and the abduction of its women including Briseis, the childless wife of king Mynes. When the women are handed out to the leaders of the Greek raiders, Briseis, as beautiful and of royal blood, is given to Achilles. The plot then becomes that of the ''Iliad'', covering the dispute between Achilles and

Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the ...

over Chryseis, which results in Achilles yielding Briseis to Agamemnon, Achilles' subsequent refusal to join the fighting, then the deaths of Patroclus,

Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

, and finally

. Briseis has become pregnant with Achilles' child shortly before his death, of which Achilles has foreknowledge; he marries her to one of his lieutenants, and the story ends as the Greek warriors depart the Trojan shores to return to their homes, accompanied by Briseis and the female war captives. The story is told chiefly by Briseis in the first person, with interjections giving Achilles' internal state of mind. However, as the title suggests, Briseis' narrative is almost entirely internal; except in flashbacks to times before her capture, she speaks out loud hardly at all and with only a few handfuls of words. Parts of the closing sequence, describing the fate of Troy's women and the sacrifice of Priam's daughter at Achilles' burial mound, are taken from ''

The Trojan Women ''The Trojan Women'' ( grc, Τρῳάδες, translit=Trōiades), also translated as ''The Women of Troy'', and also known by its transliterated Greek title ''Troades'', is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced in 415 BC duri ...

'' by

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars a ...

. The novel features appearances by many characters from the ''Iliad'' including Priam, Nestor, Ajax the Great,

, and Helen of Troy. It portrays with great intensity the brutality and filth of the war, and the emotional state of Achilles and Patroclus. Achilles' mother, the Nereid

Thetis Thetis (; grc-gre, Θέτις ), is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, or one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as ...

, appears but only speaks to Achilles when he grieves for Patroclus; she asks what's wrong and says she will bring him armour.

Critical reception

''The Silence of the Girls'' was generally well-received. Reviewers universally noted the novel's intense, often coarsely raw, portrayal of women's experience of war and its complete lack of glamorisation or praise of anything military. The following passage was excerpted by multiple reviewers: ''No longer an issue of decorum, now it’s about staying alive. "I do what no man before me has ever done, I kiss the hands of the man who killed my son," declares Priam when he prostrates himself before Achilles begging for Hector’s body. “And I do what countless women before me have been forced to do," Briseis thinks bitterly, "I spread my legs for the man who killed my husband and my brothers."'' Some reviewers (Gilbert in ''The Atlantic'', Wilson in ''The Guardian'') commented with disfavor on Barker's use of contemporary idioms, arguing that it was jarringly out of sync with the novel's Trojan-war backdrop. Several noted the parallel with ''

Circe Circe (; grc, , ) is an enchantress and a minor goddess in ancient Greek mythology and religion. She is either a daughter of the Titan Helios and the Oceanid nymph Perse or the goddess Hecate and Aeëtes. Circe was renowned for her vas ...

'' by

Madeline Miller Madeline Miller (born July 24, 1978) is an American novelist, author of ''The Song of Achilles'' (2011) and ''Circe'' (2018). Miller spent ten years writing ''The Song of Achilles'' while she worked as a teacher of Latin and Greek. The novel tell ...

, also from 2018 and also accomplished by turning a minor figure from Homeric myth into the protagonist of a novel.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silence of the Girls, The 2018 British novels British historical novels Novels by Pat Barker Novels based on the Iliad Novels set during the Trojan War Novels set in ancient Greece Parallel literature Agamemnon Hamish Hamilton books Cultural depictions of Achilles Thetis Priam Nestor (mythology) Cultural depictions of Helen of Troy