Ypermestra Argiuoru regina · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Ypermestra Argiuoru regina
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: The Argives; Ancient Greece; Argos
Description: Hypermnestra and her husband Linus (also known as Lynceus) are illustrated on the edge of the bed on the left side of the engraving. Boccaccio explains that a prophecy told Hypermnestra’s father that one of his nephews would kill him. To avoid this from happening, he married all his daughters off to his nephews and instructed them to kill their new grooms. Hypermnestra, however, fell in love with her cousin Linus. Hypermnestra is pointing towards the door in the image as she instructs him to leave to avoid her father and sisters from killing him. Her sisters are depicted in the beds beside her and Linus, with one of them slitting the throat of her husband. She is considered praiseworthy for the devotion to her husband.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18134
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18134_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Linus; Lynceus; Devotion; Mythology; Important Women; Famous Women; Hypermnestra