Waved by Circe and Medea, later in Tasso’s ‘Jerusalem Delivered’, and by Morgan le Fay in Arthurian legend. Paintings by Poussin, Waterhouse and others.
legend
Perhaps she wasn’t as much abducted as seduced by Paris, but after he’s killed in the war, she plays a crucial final role in the destruction of Troy.
Daughter of the King of Sparta, abducted as a child by Theseus, rescued by her brothers, married to the King of Sparta, then given as a bribe in a divine beauty contest.
From his conception in an adulterous deception arranged by Merlin, and drawing a sword from an anvil, to his death following wounds inflicted by the dying Mordred.
Guenevere becomes a nun, Lancelot finds and she refuses to see him again. After her death, he buries her with Arthur, then dies himself.
The dying king is taken on a barge with Morgan le Fay, two other queens, and Nyneve, to Avalon. Later his body is returned for burial in a chapel by the lake.
When the queen is abducted, Lancelot rescues her, only to see her prepared to be burned at the stake. Arthur and Lancelot go to war against one another, and Arthur against Mordred, the usurper.
Cursed to be confined to weaving images on her loom and forbidden from looking directly at the outside world, she breaks that to look at Sir Lancelot.
She fell in love with Sir Lancelot, nursed him back to health after he was badly wounded, but he refused to marry her, or even take her as his lover.
Perceval’s sister dies to save the life of a lady, Lancelot achieves the grail, then Galahad, Bors and Perceval do, but only one of them lives to tell the tale.