Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Polyxena.
The gallery
The Sacrifice of Polyxena
Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, c. 1630
Romanelli's Met canvas: the Trojan princess is led to Achilles' tomb while the Greeks demand her blood — Polyxena's last dignity painted as a baroque altar-piece.
The Sacrifice of Polyxena
Charles Le Brun, 1647
Le Brun stages the knife above the tomb: Polyxena as the war's final price, Hecuba's daughter offered so the winds will let the fleet sail home.
The Sacrifice of Polyxena
Giovanni Battista Pittoni, c. 1730–35
Pittoni's Venetian sacrifice: Polyxena kneels at Achilles' tomb in a swirl of spears and sky — the princess choosing a free death before the Greek knife.
The Rape of Polyxena
Pio Fedi, 1865
Fedi's marble group in the Loggia dei Lanzi: Neoptolemus seizes Polyxena for the tomb — Trojan grief carved as a nineteenth-century public monument.
Polyxena before the Tomb of Achilles
Giovanni Battista Pittoni, 1734
Louvre Pittoni: Polyxena stands before Achilles' tomb as the Greeks close in — the sacrifice delayed one breath into a luminous Venetian tableau.
In play
Hecuba
Euripides
Euripides makes Polyxena's sacrifice the first wound of the play — the princess who chooses a free death at Achilles' tomb before her mother's grief turns to revenge.
The Trojan Women
Euripides
Among the captive women of Troy, Polyxena's fate is already sealed for the tomb — Euripides' chorus of defeat where the princess is the Greeks' last demand.