Polixena Priami regis filia · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Polixena Priami regis filia
Subject: Neoptolemus; Achilles; The Trojan War; Important Women; Famous Women; Greek Mythology; Execution; Polyxena
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Asia Minor; Ancient Greece; Troy
Description: This engraving depicts Polyxena, the daughter of king Priam of Troy, getting executed on top of Achilles’ tomb. Polyxena is illustrated kneeling on the tomb of Achilles with her hands crossed while looking up to the sky as she accepts her fate. The man about to execute Polyxena is Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. He is depicted holding Polyxena’s hair back to expose her neck. He is executing her because she had lured Achilles into the temple of Apollo, where Paris shot and killed Achilles with his arrow. She had done this through her mother’s instructions. Neoptolemus is the one to execute her as she is the one who is partly responsible for killing his father. There is a man on the left side of the engraving who is crossing his arms, as he and many others were moved by Polyxena’s willingness to accept her fate. Boccaccio explains that he wrote on Polyxena due to her fearlessness before her execution.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18152
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18152_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Neoptolemus; Achilles; The Trojan War; Important Women; Famous Women; Greek Mythology; Execution; Polyxena

Media: mta_18152_OBJ.png