Queen of Cups Sola-Busca
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[edit] Description
A sad queen holding an amphor in which a fire is burning. A wheel is near her throne. The throne is decorated with dolphins.
[edit] Textual references
[edit] Euripides "The Trojan Women"
And wouldst thou see that queen of misery, Hecuba, thou canst; for there she lies before the gates, weeping many a bitter tear for many a tribulation; for at Achilles' tomb-though she knows not this-her daughter Polyxena has died most piteously; likewise is Priam dead, and her children too; Cassandra, whom the king Apollo left to be a virgin, frenzied maid, hath Agamemnon, in contempt of the god's ordinance and of piety, forced to a dishonoured wedlock.
[edit] Dante Alighieri - The Divine Commedy
From wikipedia: With Hecuba, Apollo had a son named Troilius. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated if Troilius reached the age of twenty alive. He and his sister, Polyxena, were ambushed and Troilius was killed by Achilles, who later fell in love with Polyxena. According to some stories, Achilles was killed when visiting her during a truce
According to most interpretations, these verses from the Commedy are a reference to Polyxena (even if her name is not mentioned):
Inferno (Hell) - Canto 5
There mark’d I Helen, for whose sake so long
The time was fraught with evil; there the great
Achilles, who with love fought to the end.
[edit] Giovanni Boccaccio - De Claris Mulieribus (Of Illustrious Women)
About Polyxena, daughter of king Priamus. Chapter XXXI.
Polyxena, daughter of Priamus, king of Troy, and of his wife Hecuba, was a girl of such excessive beauty that she filled with love the cold heart of Achilles, son of Peleus. The treachery of her mother Hecuba made Achilles come at night to the temple of Apollo, where he was wounded by an arrow thrown by Paris, and he died of that wound. At cause of that death, after the Trojan were won, and their city destroyed, Polyxena was brought to the tomb of Achilles, by his son Neptolemus, to make of her a sacrifice to the soul of his father.
....
This thing was certainly a marvel to be remembered: considering her tender age, her feminine sex, her royal fragility and the change in her fortune, all these could not bring down the heart of this young girl, even when she was to face the sword of her victorious enemy: under which the hearts of the most courageous often tremble and sometime fall. For myself, I think that such an act was made for a natural instinct, to openly show, by that comptempt of death, how great a lady would her have been if envious fortune, always fighting against good beginnings, had not taken her away from this world before her time.
[edit] Image references
The most represented scene of Polissena's life is her death: the sacrifice of Polissena. Giulio Carpioni - Venice 1613-1679
[edit] External links
- wiki Polyxena Wikipedia article about Polyxena
- Euripides The Trojan Women
- Dante Commedy - Hell V
