Brisa

Brisa is from the Spanish and Portuguese word for “breeze”. It is also believed to be derived from the name Briseis who was a mythological character in Homer’s Iliad about the Trojan War. She was the beautiful and clever princess of a Trojan-allied Greek city invaded by the Greek army. During the assault her family and husband were killed and she was taken as a war prize to be Achilles’ mistress. Captor and slave fell in love, but the commander of the Greek army Agamemnon came a-callin’ and demanded to take Briseis for himself (after he was compelled to give up his own war prize, Chryseis, under the threat of the god Apollo). As a result, Briseis became the centerpiece of a disastrous quarrel between the two Greek heroes – Achilles the great warrior and Agamemnon the commander-in-chief. A bloody duel is avoided thanks to the intercession of the goddess Athena, and Achilles is forced to turn over his beloved concubine. The dispute over Briseis serves to provide the background for Achilles’ rage and his subsequent refusal to go back into battle (although he eventually returned to battle to avenge his friend Patroclus’ death at the hands of Hector). He also gets the beautiful Briseis back “unspoiled” (meaning Agamemnon never had sex with her). So apparently all ends well for these two Greek lovers.