Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Procne.
The gallery
Statue of Procne and Itys
Alkamenes, c. 430-420 BC
This marble group, attributed to the Athenian sculptor Alkamenes and dedicated on the Acropolis around 430-420 BC, captures the terrible hesitation at the heart of the Procne myth. The Thracian queen Procne stands tall and still, one hand drawn toward the small figure of her son Itys who presses against her side, half-seeking shelter, half-sensing his doom. Procne is poised at the instant before she resolves to kill the boy in vengeance for her husband Tereus's rape and mutilation of her sister Philomela. The sculpture's restrained monumentality lets the horror reside in stillness rather than action. It survives today in the Acropolis Museum in Athens.
Philomela and Procne Preparing to Kill Itys (Athenian wine cup)
Unknown, c. 480 BC
Painted on an Attic red-figure wine cup around 480 BC, this scene shows the two sisters, Procne and Philomela, steeling themselves to murder the child Itys. The boy stands between the women who close in on him, his small body emphasizing the monstrousness of the revenge they plot against Tereus. Vase painters of classical Athens repeatedly returned to this myth as a meditation on the destruction of the household from within, and this cup is among the earliest surviving depictions of the climactic moment. It is now held in the Louvre, Paris.
Tereus Confronted with the Head of His Son Itylus
Peter Paul Rubens, 1636-1638
Painted by Peter Paul Rubens in the late 1630s for Philip IV of Spain, this oil on canvas freezes the myth at its most violent reversal. Procne and her sister Philomela burst toward the seated Tereus, thrusting before him the severed head of his son Itys, whom Procne has slain and served to the unsuspecting king at his own table. Tereus recoils in horror as he grasps the cannibal feast he has just consumed. Rubens charges the scene with whirling Baroque drama, and at the upper edge the figures already begin their metamorphosis into birds. The work hangs in the Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Procne, Tereus and Philomela
Sebastiano del Piombo, 16th century
This Renaissance fresco by Sebastiano del Piombo, painted for the Villa Farnesina in Rome, brings together the three principals of the tragedy: Procne, her husband Tereus, and her sister Philomela. Rendered with the monumental grace of the High Renaissance, the figures embody the doomed family bond that the myth tears apart, leading from Tereus's betrayal to Procne's infanticidal revenge and the final transformation of all three into birds. The fresco remains in situ at the Villa Farnesina.