25-1-07

Polyxena is my idol. She's one cool chick.
She was the youngest daughter of Priam, King of Troy.
She went to gather water with her brother, Troliaus and that was when Archilles killed him and fell in love with her.
After Hector was killed, Archilles demanded his weight in gold for the return of his body. When all the gold in Troy wasn't enough, Polyxena threw her bracelet from the wall and it was enough to by her brother back.
Archilles asked for her hand in marriage as an allience but she refused it.
After Hector was killed she pretended to change her mind and agreed to meet him in the sacred grove of Apollo. That was when Paris killed him.
When the war ended Archilles' son said that his father demanded Polyxena be sacrificed to him so the Greek ships could sail home.
Polyxena agreed on the terms that she will have a tomb far away from Archilles' and that it would be visited by no-one that had been to Archilles.
She also asked that she be the last blood shed for the war and that on her tomb it proclaimed.

As an innocent Greek princess began the war (Iphigenia), an innocent Trojan one will end it

When she was to be killed she wore wedding garments and refused the blindfold offered to her.
As she lay on the stone she closed her eyes and spoke silently to someone.
When Neoptolemus cut her throat she did not revolt or even shake as a normal person - or animal - should, making it hard for them to tell when she was dead.
On the same day, after she was burried in her tomb the Greeks sailed from Troy. leaving nothing but two tombs and a wrecked empire behind them.

People debate over whether Archilles demanded Polyxena's death out of revenge or if he wanted to marry her in the afterlife.
I believe he wanted to marry her dispite the whole trickery thing (thus the wedding dress)

Polyxena is my hero because dispite the fact that Archilles killed half her family she was still willing to be killed at his alter, not so the Greek ships could sail, but to finally end the war.
That is what a real hero is, not someone who goes to war and kills hundreds of men but someone who is willing to die themself to end the war.
We all could learn so much from Polyxena, a young girl who was willing to give up her own life to bring peace to many others.
Laura




Today, I'm not as big on Polyxena. Partly the turning down an alliance because she didn't want to marry her brother's murderer (man up, an alliance could save your city) but also the dying. I don't want to idolise someone who dies. I want to idolise someone who fights back, not physically, but still, fighting. But that's where my head was at back then. (That said, the trickery bit was gutsy)