Supplice de Léena · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture · Center for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Supplice de Léena
Subject: Silence; Loyalty; Honour; Torture; Tongue
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Greece
Description: When Leaena was taken hostage by Hyspar, she was tortured for a long time in an effort to find out her identity. As the torture went on and she grew weak and fearful that giving this information would hurt other people, she decided to bite down onto her tongue, cutting it off so that she couldn’t speak, even if she wanted to. She is seen in the image between two men that are torturing her, but her mouth remains shut. Because she gave herself to prostitution earlier in her life, her identity, family and country remain unknown, although it is thought that she may be Greek.
Image Creator: Master of the Cleres Femmes of the Duke of Berry (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20030
Language: fre
Source Name: Livre des Femmes Nobles et Renommées
Parent Collection: 1403 Paris
Image: mta_20030_OBJ.png