The Rape of Polyxene, By Pio Fedi 36cm Veronese Electrolytic Bronze Full Body Statue

The rape of Polyxeni

In Greek mythology, Polyxeni was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba. She does not appear in Homer, but in several other classical authors, though the details of her story vary considerably. After the fall of Troy, she dies when sacrificed by the Greeks on the tomb of Achilles, to whom she had been betrothed and, in whose death, she was complicit in many versions. The statue usually called The Rape of Polyxena by Pio Fedi (1855–1865), which is very prominently displayed in the Loggia dei Lanzi in Florence, is slightly misleading in the violence that seems to be depicted. The name does not refer to sexual rape, but to an earlier definition of the word derived from the Latin rapere (supine stem raptum), "to snatch, to grab, to carry off". It does not show Polyxenas sexual rape, but her taking to be killed by Neoptolemus, despite the protests of her mother Hecuba, seated.

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