Friday, April 23, 2010

Myths and Legends: Polyxena at the Well

Polyxena at the Well. To find out more about Polyxena and the ambush at the well, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

Polyxena was the youngest daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Here you see her drawing water at the well - while Achilles is watching her! You can see Achilles on the other side of the vase:

Achilles had felt a strong sympathy towards this Trojan princess, and he told her of his only vulnerability: his heel. With that knowledge, Prince Paris, Polyxena's brother, was able to ambush Achilles and kill him. You can read about Polyxena's sad fate here: The Sacrifice of Polyxena.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of April 22-28 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.