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4thmansionofthemoon:

Woman Kills a Would-Be Rapist and is Presented with his Belongings, manuscript illumination, 12th c., Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, MS Graecus Vitr. 26-2, fol. 208r.

According to the text of the Madrid manuscript of the “Synopsis historion,” a Byzantine chronicle written by John Skylitzes, “There were some Varangians dispersed in the Thrakesion theme for the winter. One of them coming across a woman of the region in the wilderness put the quality of her virtue to the test. When persuasion failed he resorted to violence, but she seized his Persian-type sword, struck him in the heart and promptly killed him. When the deed became known in the surrounding area, the Varangians held an assembly and crowned the woman, presenting her with all the possessions of her violator, whom they threw aside, unburied, according to the law concerning assassins.” In the image depicting these occurrences, the woman uses a spear to kill her attacker, and the other Varangian men approach her with armfuls of clothing.

Courtesy of Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

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