List of rape victims from ancient history and mythology

Rape is a common topic in history and mythology. A list of notable victims from history and mythology includes:

The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Rubens

The Story of Lucretia (1496-1504) by Sandro Botticelli; Lucretia's rape is on the left panel.

History

• Rogneda of Polotsk from Belarus/Scandinavian history; raped by Vladimir, half-brother of her betrothed Yaropolk I of Kiev, in the presence of her parents (10th century)
• Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-c. 1656), Italian Baroque artist
• Xenia Borisovna, Russian princess, forcibly taken as a concubine by False Dmitry I

Mythology

Christian mythology

• Agnes of Rome; a young girl of around 12 or 13 years of age, who consecrated her virginity to Christ, and was dragged to a brothel to be raped, in a bid to make her recant her Christian faith.

Male

• Hermaphroditos; raped by (and later merged with) the nymph Salmacis.
• Daphnis; raped by Gnathon
• Odysseus; in some versions, raped by Calypso on the island of Ogygia in his seven year stay
• Endymion; in some versions, raped by Selene in his sleep.
• Silenus by Cyclops
• Chrysippus of Elis; raped by Theban Laius.

Female

• Alcmene; raped by Zeus in form of her husband Amphitryon.
• Callisto; raped by Zeus, while she slept.
• Cassandra; raped by Ajax the Lesser, and later forced into concubinage by Agamemnon.
• Demeter; according to an Arcadian myth, Demeter was being pursued by her younger brother, Poseidon, and she changed into a horse to escape him. Poseidon, however, transformed himself into a horse and, after cornering Demeter, raped his older sister, resulting in her giving birth to Despoina, a maiden goddess, and Arion, a divine horse.
• Leda, raped by Zeus in the form of a swan.[1]
• Medusa; raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple, but only in Ovid's version.
• Persephone; raped by her uncle, Hades. In some versions, raped by her father, Zeus.
• Philomela; raped by her brother-in-law Tereus

Hebrew Bible

• Dinah; raped by a Canaanite prince and avenged by her brothers.
• Lot; raped by his daughters by means of alcohol
• Tamar; raped by her half-brother Amnon.

Norse mythology

• Rindr; raped by Odin in Saxo Grammaticus' version of the engendering of Baldr's avenger

Roman mythology

• Lucretia; raped by a prince, Sextus Tarquinius.[2]
• The Sabine women; raped by the founders of Rome

Knights of the Round Table

• Lancelot; Elaine of Corbenic posed as Guinevere to perform a rape by deception upon him.

References

1. In some versions of the story, Zeus seduces Leda and she submits willingly. In others, such as that retold in William Butler Yeats' "Leda and the Swan", he rapes her: Romigh, Maggie (2007). "Luci Tapahonso's 'Leda and the cowboy': a gynocratic, Navajo response to Yeats's 'Leda and the swan'". In Cotten, Angela L.; Acampora, Christa Davis (eds.). Cultural sites of critical insight: philosophy, aesthetics, and African American and Native American women's writings. Albany, New York: State University of New York. p. 159. ISBN 9781429465700.
2. Cornell, Timothy J (1995). "9. The Beginnings of the Roman Republic: 2. The Problem of Chronology". The Beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). The Routledge History of the Ancient World. Routledge. pp. 218–225. ISBN 978-0-415-01596-7.