Daughter of Chryses, priest of Apollo at Chryse, taken by Agamemnon when the Achaeans sacked her city — the prize whose refusal loosed the god's plague upon the host.1
Her father came to the swift ships bearing ransom past counting, holding the wreaths of Apollo who strikes from afar upon a staff of gold, and begged the sons of Atreus to free his daughter and accept the splendid gifts. All the Achaeans shouted assent — but Agamemnon refused, saying he preferred Chryseis to Clytemnestra his wedded wife, for she was not inferior in form, stature, mind or handiwork.2
When Calchas revealed that Apollo's anger would not lift until the girl was returned without ransom or gifts, Agamemnon yielded — but seized Briseis from Achilles in compensation. A black ship carried Chryseis home with a hecatomb; at Chryse her father received her gladly and prayed, and Apollo stayed his wrath.3
Homer never names her again after the return. She is not the Oceanid Chryseis of Hesiod's catalogue, nor any of the later wives catalogued under the same name in Apollodorus — only the priest's daughter whose restoration was the price of the army's life.4
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the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story