Polyxena was the
beautiful daughter of
King Priam of
Troy. She and the
Greek hero
Achilles fell in love, but her brother
Hector refused to let her marry an enemy of the
Trojans. Achilles killed Hector during battle and was himself killed by
Paris to avenge Hector's death. After the
defeat of Troy the ghost of Achilles requested that Polyxena be sacrificed to honour his
tomb.
In 'The sacrifice of Polyxena', painter Giovanni Battista Pittoni shows her being led with dignity to the tomb where she asks Neoptolemus, Achilles' son, to kill her, preferring death to enslavement by the Greeks.