1st Edition

Virgin Sacrifice in Classical Art Women, Agency, and the Trojan War

By Anthony F. Mangieri Copyright 2018
    238 Pages
    by Routledge

    246 Pages 8 Color & 66 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    238 Pages 8 Color & 66 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The Trojan War begins and ends with the sacrifice of a virgin princess. The gruesome killing of a woman must have captivated ancient people because the myth of the sacrificial virgin resonates powerfully in the arts of ancient Greece and Rome. Most scholars agree that the Greeks and Romans did not practice human sacrifice, so why then do the myths of virgin sacrifice appear persistently in art and literature for over a millennium? Virgin Sacrifice in Classical Art: Women, Agency, and the Trojan War seeks to answer this question.
    This book tells the stories of the sacrificial maidens in order to help the reader discover the meanings bound up in these myths for historical people. In exploring the representations of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art, this book offers a broader cultural history that reveals what people in the ancient world were seeking in these stories. The result is an interdisciplinary study that offers new interpretations on the meaning of the sacrificial virgin as a cultural and ideological construction. This is the first book-length study of virgin sacrifice in ancient art and the first to provide an interpretive framework within which to understand its imagery.

    Table of Contents



    Acknowledgements



    List of Figures



    List of Abbreviations



    Chapter 1: Introduction: Virgin Sacrifice in Classical Art and Society



    Just a Man’s World? The Patriarchal, Monolithic Male Gaze



    The Public and Private ‘Lives’ of Iphigeneia and Polyxena



    Organization of the Study



    Chapter 2: What Makes a Virgin Sacrifice?



    Towards a Definition of Virgin Sacrifice



    Killing a Woman: Terminology and Relation to Animal Sacrifice



    Traditions of Human Sacrifice in the Near East



    Jephthah’s Daughter: Virgin Sacrifice in the Bible



    Chapter 3: The Sacrifice of Iphigeneia



    Iphigeneia in Greek Art



    Iphigeneia in Etruscan Art



    Iphigeneia in Roman Art



    Chapter 4: The Sacrifice of Polyxena



    Polyxena in Greek Art



    Polyxena in Etruscan Art



    Polyxena in Roman Art



    Chapter 5: War and Womanhood: Virgin Sacrifice and the Trojan War



    The Sacrificial Virgins and Helen of Troy



    The Brygos Painter’s Louvre Iliupersis Cup



    Iconographic Ambiguity: Who is Represented?



    Between Sisters: Kassandra and Polyxena



    The Sacrificial Virgin in Iliupersis Tableaux



    Polyxena and Troilos



    The Heroines Pyxis in London: The Art of Pairing Women



    The Trojan War on Italian Soil: Resonances in the Roman World



    Virgin Bodies: Framing The Trojan War



    Beyond the Trojan War: The Defiant Antigone



    Mythological Women, Representation, and Womanhood



    Chapter 6: The Sacrificial Virgins and Female Agency



    Consent, Resistance, and the Measure of a Maiden



    Agency and Context in Etruscan and Roman Art



    Polyxena the Aristocrat: Agency, War, and Tripods



    Victims and Rebels: Recovering Ancient Women’s Resistance



    Chapter 7: Conclusion: The Princess and the Knife



    The "Afterlives" of Iphigeneia and Polyxena: Their Legacy



    After the Sacrifice and Further Questions



    Conclusion



    Bibliography



    Catalogue of Representations of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in Greek, Etruscan, and



    Roman Art



    General Index

    Biography

    Anthony F. Mangieri is Associate Professor of Art History and Coordinator of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program at Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. He holds a Ph.D. in Greek and Roman art from Emory University. Mangieri has lectured widely and published articles on Greek art.