[Sca-cooks] Philomena (was: Quail eggs)

[sjk3 at cornell.edu]

> >There is a Greek myth about Philomena, who was indeed raped (seduced,
> >tricked, whatever) by her sister's husband, who cut out her tongue so she
> >couldn't tell. She wove a tapestry telling her story, and sent it to her
> >sister. The sisters escaped from the evil husband but he caught up with
> >them, and so they prayed to the gods for help. Procne (the sister) was
> >turned into a nightingale, Philomena was turned into a swallow (some
> >versions have sparrow) who can twitter but cannot sing. The evil husband
> >was turned into another sort of bird.
>
> I remember thinking there were similarities to Lavinia in _Titus
> Andronicus_...
>
> 'Lainie

     As I recall, Lavinia's hands were cut off (so she couldn't weave?),
but she found other ways of identifying her attacker.

     Interesting "chronology."  A Roman woman whose rapist knows a story
told during the plague in Florence...  :-)

Sandra