List of rape victims from ancient history and mythology

The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus by Rubens

The lock, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

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

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

• Leda from Greek mythology, raped by Zeus in the form of a swan^[1]
• Cassandra from Greek mythology; raped by Ajax the Lesser
• Chrysippus from Greek mythology; raped by his tutor Laius
• Antiope from Greek mythology; raped by Zeus
• Persphone daughter of Demeter from Greek mythology; raped by Hades also in Roman mythology as the rape of Proserpina
• Dinah from the Hebrew Bible; raped by a Canaanite prince and avenged by her brothers
• Lucretia from Roman legend/history; raped by a prince, Sextus Tarquinius.^[2]
• Medusa from Greek mythology; raped by Poseidon
• Philomela from Greek and Roman mythology; raped by her brother in law
• Rindr from Norse mythology, raped by Odin in Saxo Grammaticus' version of the engendering of Baldr's avenger
• 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)
• The Sabine women; raped by the founders of Rome according to its legendary history
• Tamar from the Hebrew Bible; raped by her half-brother Amnon.
• The daughters of Leucippus, Phoebe and Hilaeira, were abducted, raped and later married by Castor and Pollux. In return, Idas and Lynceus, nephews of Leucippus and rival suitors, killed Castor.50 ^[3]
• Agnes of Rome, was 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. Instead, many of the men who tried to molest her ended up being inflicted with blindness or even died.

References

1. In some versions of the story, Zeus seduces Leda. 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. 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. Missing or empty |title= (help)
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.
3. Klassiker: Gemälde, H. Johannsen, Gerstenberg, 2001, ISBN 380-672-516-0.