Overview

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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Anthony F. Mangieri ,  ELORDI
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Weight:   0.635kg
ISBN:  

9780415301350

ISBN 10:   0415301351
Pages:   246
Publication Date:   03 October 2017
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"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"

Reviews

This refreshing, multi-faceted approach to analyzing visual representations of a most intriguing topic is a powerful argument for using myth, depicted both in art and literature, as a means for understanding how women and men in the classical Mediterranean world saw themselves and each other. - Keely Elizabeth Heuer, State University of New York at New Paltz

This refreshing, multi-faceted approach to analyzing visual representations of a most intriguing topic is a powerful argument for using myth, depicted both in art and literature, as a means for understanding how women and men in the classical Mediterranean world saw themselves and each other. - Keely Elizabeth Heuer, State University of New York at New Paltz

Author Information

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.

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