The virgin sacrificed: Images of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in Greek and Roman art

Although the Greeks and Romans did not practice human sacrifice, the myth of the sacrificial virgin resonates powerfully as a subject in the visual arts of ancient Greece, Etruria, and Rome for over a millennium, from the early seventh-century BC to the fourth-century AD. While there are several sacrificial virgins in ancient myth, only two find visual expression: Iphigeneia, daughter of Agamemnon, sacrificed to begin the Trojan War, and Polyxena, daughter of Priam, sacrificed at its end. This dissertation explores how the representations of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in ancient art offer new interpretations on the meanings of the sacrificial virgin as a cultural and ideological construction in ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The result is a cultural history focusing on the iconography and iconology of Iphigeneia and Polyxena in ancient art. Through an analysis of the imagery of Iphigeneia and Polyxena sacrificed, this dissertation examines how and why the mythical sacrificial virgins occupied an important place in the thinking and imagination of historical women and men in ancient Greece. The overarching conclusion is that the figure of the sacrificial virgin in art conveyed a spectrum of meanings informed by the work of art's iconography, medium, context, and intended and unintended viewers. Two further conclusions follow. First, the figure of the sacrificial virgin illuminates a mode of aristocratic fashioning of identity, both of women and men. Secondly, the subject of virgin sacrifice in art presents a more complex view of female agency in the ancient world than has been previously thought, which in turn offers a more nuanced understanding of the role and status of women in ancient Greece, Etruria, and the Roman Empire.