Theoxena, Her Husband, Son, and Nephews Dying by Suicide

From the Getty Museum record

Theoxena and her second husband appear twice in this image, once aboard the ship and once floating face down after they have leapt to their watery graves. Theoxena orchestrated the deaths of her second husband, her son, and her two nephews when faced with the certainty of persecution from the Macedonians. Theoxena and her sister Archo had become widows after their husbands were killed in the Thessalonian wars against King Philip of Macedonia. Left with only with one son each, the two sisters chose different paths: Theoxena resisted marrying again while Archo took a second husband. Archo died shortly after birthing a second son, and Theoxena, anxious about being separated from her nephews, married Archo’s second husband. At that time, King Philip feared revenge from the children of the men he had had killed and so issued an order to have all Thessalonian boys executed. In haste when being pursued by Macedonian soldiers, Theoxena offered her son and nephews a choice between the sword or poison. Unsure that the poison would act quickly enough, she then proceeded to throw her children overboard into the swirling sea, followed by her husband and herself. In the image, the three boys are depicted as dead in the back of the boat, their eyes peacefully closed as if in sleep.