[Jocasta Stabs Herself to Death] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Jocasta Stabs Herself to Death]
Subject: Oedipus; Incest; Greek Mythology; Important Women; Important Queens; Jocasta
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Ancient Greece; Thebes
Description: Jocasta, the queen of Thebes, is depicted on the left side of the illustration stabbing herself in the stomach with a sword. Boccaccio explains that when Jocasta when a young girl, she was married off to the King of Thebes. After bearing a child, a prophecy said that the child would grow up to kill the King and marry his mother. Jocasta and King Laius exposed the child after hearing this prophecy. Their child, Oedipus, is depicted in the background of the illustration tied to a tree as he is being helped down by those who go on to raise him. The prophecy ends up being fulfilled as Oedipus kills his father and unknowingly marries his mother. When Jocasta finds out she married her son, she stabs herself, which is depicted in this illustration.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:11989
Language: frm
Source Name: De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames [Of praise and virtue of the noble and clergy women]
Parent Collection: 1493 Paris; 1493 Paris
Image: mta_11989_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Oedipus; Incest; Greek Mythology; Important Women; Important Queens; Jocasta