The Virgin Sacrificed: Images of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in Greek and Roman Art Public

Abstract

Although the Greeks and Romans did not practice human sacrifice, the myth of the sacrificial virgin resonates powerfully as a subject in the visual arts of ancient Greece, Etruria, and Rome for over a millennium, from the early seventh- century BC to the fourth-century AD. While there are several sacrificial virgins in ancient myth, only two find visual expression: Iphigeneia, daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed to begin the Trojan War, and Polyxena, daughter of Priam, sacrificed at its end. This dissertation explores how the representations of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in ancient art offer new interpretations on the meanings of the sacrificial virgin as a cultural and ideological construction in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The result is a cultural history focusing on the iconography and iconology of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in ancient art. Through an analysis of the imagery of Iphigeneia and Polyxena sacrificed, this dissertation examines how and why the mythical sacrificial virgins occupied an important place in the thinking and imagination of historical women and men in ancient Greece.

The overarching conclusion is that the figure of the sacrificial virgin in art conveyed a spectrum of meanings informed by the work of art's iconography, medium, context, and intended and unintended viewers. Two further conclusions follow. First, the figure of the sacrificial virgin illuminates a mode of aristocratic fashioning of identity, both of women and men. Secondly, the subject of virgin sacrifice in art presents a more complex view of female agency in the ancient world than has been previously thought, which in turn offers a more nuanced understanding of the role and status of women in ancient Greece, Etruria, and the Roman Empire.

Table of Contents

The Virgin Sacrificed: Images of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in Greek and Roman Art Table of Contents

Abstract

Acknowledgements

List of Illustrations List of Abbreviations

Introduction Seeing the Sacrificial Virgin Fashioning of Identity Issues of Female Agency Part I: Representing the Sacrificial Virgin 1 Traditions of the Sacrificial Maiden in the Ancient Mediterranean.........................................................................................27 Literary Sources Relation between Art and Text Other Sacrificial Maidens Relation to Animal Sacrifice Traditions in the Ancient Near East Towards a Definition of the Sacrificial Virgin 2 Images of Iphigeneia in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art 3 Pictures of Polyxena in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art Part II: Interpreting the Sacrificial Virgin 4 Fashioning the Sacrificial Virgin: Comparing Helen, the Sacrificial Virgins, and Representations of Womanhood Louvre G152 and Iconographic Ambiguity British Museum E773 and Catalogues of Women 5 Issues of Female Agency and Views of the Sacrificial Virgin What's a Girl to Do? Consent, Resistance, and the Measure of a Maiden The Public and Private "Lives" of Iphigeneia and Polyxena The Sacrificial Virgin and the Politics of Aristocratic Life Fig IPH 23. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 43 (139) Fig IPH 24. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 34 (114) Fig IPH 25. Perugia Museo Nazionale 344 (101) Fig IPH 26. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 329 (123) Fig IPH 27. Rome, Villa Giulia 50311 Fig IPH 28. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 49 Fig IPH 29. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 330 (ex 127) Fig IPH 30. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 394 Fig IPH 31. Rome, Villa Giulia 50312 Fig IPH 32. Perugia, Museo Nazionale Fig IPH 33. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 38 Fig IPH 34. Perugia, Casa del S. Cuore (Villa Monti) Fig IPH 35. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 279 Fig IPH 36. Vatican, Museo Gregoriano Etrusco 13902 Fig IPH 37. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 50006 (ex Villa di Compresso) Fig IPH 38. Perugia, Museo Nazionale inv. Palazzone 55 Fig IPH 39. Perugia, (ex ?) Villa Antinori (Monte Vile) Fig IPH 40. Perugia, Museo Nazionale 348 Fig IPH 41. Pischiello, Villa Sorbello Fig IPH 42. ex Mannheim, Reiss-Museum (destroyed in WWII) Fig IPH 43. Volterra, Museo Guarnacci 457 Fig IPH 44. Volterra, Museo Guarnacci 512 Fig IPH 45. Florence, Museo Archeologico 5754

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School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Art History
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Art History
Mot-clé	Women in the ancient world Greek art gender and sexuality Greek vase-painting mythology iconography
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Wescoat, Bonna D, Emory University
Committee Members	Gaunt, Jasper, Michael C. Carlos Museum Varner, Eric, Emory University

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