Polyxenas

Polyxenas were a group of female figures in ancient Greek mythology. They were princesses of Troy, the sisters of Hector and Paris, and daughters of King Priam and Queen Hecuba.

According to myth, Polyxena was the name of three sisters, although some sources combine them into a single figure. One Polyxena was known for her beauty and was the wife of Polixenes, a prince of Orchinea, a city in Thessaly. Another Polyxena, the daughter of King Priam, was a priestess of the goddess Athena and played a key role in the events leading up to the Trojan War.

She was also associated with the Greek hero Odysseus, who was said to have encountered her on his way back from the Trojan War, and with the story of the sacrifice of King Priam's daughter Iphigenia being revised so that she herself, rather than her sister Iphigenia, was the one being demanded as a sacrificial victim from King Agamemnon. However, according to Euripides' account in "Hecuba", it was ultimately Iphigenia, not Polyxena, who was actually sacrificed.

In some accounts of her, Polyxena appears alongside her sisters as mourners of their brothers, who were slain in the war. They also appear with their mother Hecuba in mournful scenes as they lament the passing of the fallen city of Troy. A play by Euripides also called "Polyxena" was written and draws a deeper background story about Polyxena walking towards death unafraid.