Cy sensuit histoire de polisene fille du roy priame · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy sensuit histoire de polisene fille du roy priame
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Priam; The Trojan War; Neoptolemus; Achilles; Polyxena
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Asia Minor; Ancient Greece; Troy
Description: This illumination depicts Polyxena, the daughter of king Priam of Troy, about to be executed in front of Achilles’ tomb. Polyxena is illustrated kneeling with her hands together in prayer while looking down to the ground as she accepts her fate. The man executing Polyxena is Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Polyxena had lured Achilles into the temple of Apollo, where Paris shot and killed Achilles with his arrow. Neoptolemus is the person executing her as she is the one who is partly responsible for killing his father. Boccaccio explains that he wrote on Polyxena due to her fearlessness before her execution.
Image Creator: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:19867
Language: frm
Source Name: Des cleres et nobles femmes, De claris mulieribus in an anonymous French translation
Parent Collection: 1410 Paris; 1410 Paris
Image: mta_19867_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Important Women; Famous Women; Priam; The Trojan War; Neoptolemus; Achilles; Polyxena