Briana King

“Brides of Disaster”: Homeric Heroines & the Ideology of Male Victory

Video Essay (Peer Reviewed)

Cite this work:

King, B (2022) ‘“Brides of Disaster”: Homeric Heroines & the Ideology of Male Victory’, Assemblywomen 1. https://wcc-uk.blogs.sas.ac.uk/assemblywomen/volume-1-2022/king-2022/

Image Captions

• Athenian red-figure calyx krater c. 470-460 BCE by the Altamura Painter. Ilioupersis, scenes from the fall of Troy. Left, side A: The Lesser Ajax attacks Cassandra at the Palladion. Boston MFA 59.178. Photograph © August 3, 2022 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
• Athenian red-figure hydria c. 450-440 BCE. Thersites (right) insulting Agamemnon (middle). British Museum 1891,0629.3. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
• Athenian red-figure skyphos c. 490 BCE painted by Makron. Departure and recovery of Helen. Paris leading Helen away from Sparta and the Palace of Menelaos. Aeneas, with a lion shield, accompanies Paris. Aphrodite and Eros flank Helen. Peitho follows behind Aphrodite. Boston MFA 13.186. Photograph © August 3, 2022 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
• Athenian black-figure amphora c. 570-550 BCE, attributed to the Timiades Painter/the Tyrrhenian Group. The sacrifice of Polyxena. Neoptolemos, Diomedes, Nestor, Amphilochos, Antiphates, Ajax, and Phoinix. British Museum 1897,0727.2.
  © The Trustees of the British Museum.
• Athenian red-figure cup, c. 490-480 BCE painted by Makron. Neoptolemos guiding Polyxena to the tomb of Achilles; group followed by other Greek military leaders (Akamas, Demophon and others). Musée du Louvre, G153. © 2021 RMN-Grand Palais (musée du Louvre) / Tony Querrec.
• Athenian red-figure volute krater, c. 400-390 BCE. Ilioupersis: Death Of Priam, Neoptolemos, Ajax And Cassandra At Statue Of Athena, Andromache And Astyanax (?). Ferrara, Museo Nazionale di Spina: T136AVP. Su concessione del Ministero della Cultura – Direzione regionale Musei dell’Emilia-Romagna. [Prohibition of further reproduction or duplication by any means.]
• Apulian red-figure loutrophoros c. 340-320 BCE attributed to the Darius Painter. Upper band: blinding of Polymestor. British Museum 1900,0519.1. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
• Athenian white-ground, black-figure cup c. 510-500 BCE. Herakles and Amazon, hoplites fighting, erotic scene between man and woman. Athens, National Museum 408/2232. © National Archaeological Museum Athens, A408.
• “Ajax and Cassandra”, Painting by Solomon Joseph Solomon, 1886. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Edited map from the Internet Archive Book Image Photostream on Flickr of ancient Greece. Credit: Stuart Rankin. https://www.flickr.com/photos/24354425@N03/15027146860.
• The fall of Troy, with at centre a Greek soldier grabbing a woman by the hair while another pulls her garment. Illustration to Theobald’s translation of the Aeneid, by William Henry Toms After Gravelot, 1736-1739. Etching and engraving, with letterpress on verso.© The Trustees of the British Museum.
• Apulian red-figure volute krater, 370BC-350BC, Attributed to The Iliupersis Painter. Right: Odysseus seizing the fallen Polyxena. Left: Ajax seizing Cassandra at the xoanon of Athena. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
• “Hector Taking Leave of Andromache”, painting by Angelica Kauffmann  (1741–1807). Angelica Kauffmann, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• “Hector and Andromache”, painting by Sergey Petrovich Postnikov, 1863. Sergey Petrovich Postnikov, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Scene from the fall of Troy, with Andromache pulled back by Greek soldiers as the corpse of her son Astyanax is carried away. After a painting by Rochegrosse; a plate from “Le Monde Illustré”, 12 May 1883. Print made by: Fortuné Méaulle. © The Trustees of the British Museum.
• “The Sacrifice of Polyxena”, Painting by Charles Le Brun, 1647. Charles Le Brun, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Athenian black-figure amphora by the Amasis Painter c. 550 BCE. Recovery of Helen by Menelaus. Amasis Painter, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• “Helena und Menelaos”, Painting by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1816.
  Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
•  “The Sacrifice of Polyxena”, Painting by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, 17th century. Giovanni Francesco Romanelli, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Andromache Fainting on the Wall, Author: Alfred John Church, Illustrator: John Flaxman, 1895. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• The Despair of Hecuba, Drawing by Pierre Peyron, c. 1784. Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
• Agamemnon and Cassandra return to Mycenae. Etching by Theodoor van Thulden. Origin: Paris. Date: 1632 – 1633. Public Domain Dedication (CC0 1.0). https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/YR0334648/Agamemnon-and-Cassandra-return-to-Mycenae.
• “Hecuba Kills Polymestor”, Painting by Giuseppe Maria Crespi, first half of the 18th century. Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
• “Captive Andromache”, Painting by Frederic Leighton c. 1886-1888. Frederic Leighton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

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