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Title
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Theosenne fille de therodice prince
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Description
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This image depicts a woman breastfeeding a child while another child sits by her on the ground. The woman in the image is Theoxena, a woman of Thessaly and the daughter of Prince Herodicus. Boccaccio explains that Theoxena’s husband and brother-in-law had been killed by King Philip of Macedon, and when he decreed that all the sons of the men he has killed must be executed as well, she knew she had to protect her family. Rather than dying at the hands of a horrible king, she wanted her family to die at her hands instead. Theoxena gave her child and her sister’s children the option of either drinking poison or stabbing themselves. The illumination does not reflect this story, as the image simply depicts Theoxena breastfeeding the children.
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Image Creator
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Robinet Testard (Illuminator)
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Identifier
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mta:25176
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Source Name
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Boccace, Des cleres et nobles femmes, traduction française anonyme [Boccaccio, The cleric and noble women, anonymous French translation]
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Image
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mta_25176_OBJ.jpg
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Subject
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Theoxena
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Important Women
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Famous Women
mta_25176_OBJ.jpg