Archaeologists have finally opened a 2,500-year-old tomb discovered in 1994 in Türkiye that reveals an important depiction and treasure from Greek mythology.
The 2,500-year-old sarcophagus of Polyxena from the Kızöldün tumulus at the New Troy Museum. The Kızöldün tumulus is the oldest known tumulus from Hellespontine Phrygia, found in the valley of the Granicus River near Biga in Çanakkale province in 1994. Inside the tumulus, archaeologists found two marble sarcophagi: one depicting the sacrifice of Polyxena, between 500 and 490 AD, and another containing the body of a 10-year-old girl, buried 40 to 50 years later.
The sarcophagus of Polyxena is a remarkable object, as it is one of the earliest stone sarcophagi with figurative scenes to have been found in Asia Minor. It represents an early example from the Proconesian marble workshops. It has impressive dimensions of 3.32 m long, 1.60 m wide and 1.78 m high. A hole in the lid of the sarcophagus indicates that it had been stolen in antiquity. In addition, fragments of a wheeled cart that transported corpses to the burial mound were discovered beneath the terracotta tiles surrounding the sarcophagus. Although the figures on the reliefs mainly depict women, the person buried was a 40-year-old man.
The reliefs on the sarcophagus show a funeral celebration on three sides and on the back what is believed to be the sacrifice of Polyxena by Neuptolemus in front of the tomb of her father Achilles. Although not mentioned by Homer, Polyxena was a well-known figure in Greek mythology.
Polyxena, youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his wife, Hecuba. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated if Polyxena’s brother, Prince Troilus, reached the age of 20. The brothers were ambushed as they attempted to fetch water from a spring and Troilus was killed by Achilles, who soon took an interest in Polyxena. He seemed to trust Polyxena and told her what her only vulnerability was: her heel.
Polyxena revealed this secret to her brothers, Paris and Deiphobus, who ambushed Achilles and shot him in the heel with an arrow. At the end of the Trojan War, the ghost of Achilles returned to the Greeks to demand the human sacrifice of Polyxena to appease the wind needed to sail back to Greece. She was to be killed at the foot of Achilles’ grave. Polyxena was eager to die as a sacrifice to Achilles rather than live as a slave. She refused to beg for mercy and died bravely like Achilles’ son Neoptolemus by slitting her own throat.
