Tuesday, March 31, 2015

A Murdered Jewish Prostitute in Rome

Of all things.

I am watching TV, almost mindlessly, and suddenly, my ears hear the word "Jewish" and then "prostitute".

Could it be?

The program is an episode of something called DaVinci's Demons.

Quickly, it's off to Google and I find this:

Riario informs Leo that Sixtus tested him by exacting revenge on a sinner, a Jewish prostitute who also happened to be his mother. The Count strangled her to death and proved himself to Sixtus. Now he feels terrible remorse and foolish for chasing after The Book of Leaves for some kind of redemption.

And a further search informs me th character is:

Celia Lysimachus (died c. 1471) was a Jewish prostitute in Rome. She was Girolamo Riario's mother. Alessandro della Rovere, Riario's father, ordered him to kill the prostitute, following his usurpation of the Papacy. Riario strangled her to death, realizing in those final moments that the woman he was murdering was his mother.

The dialogue from Fall from Heaven in season 2 episode 8, May 2014

When His Holiness called me to be his instrument, he tested my resolve.
He sent me to exact vengeance against a sinner who crossed our path.
A Jewish prostitute.
In God's holy city.
I followed her for hours.
I wanted so badly to please my father.
But how could the Lord desire me to take a life? Sixtus chose her specifically.
Didn't he? Celia Lysimachus.
You brought flowers to her grave.
She was um someone familiar.
She was your mother.
We both grasped it in those moments.
And I didn't stop.
I saw it in her eyes.
She knew who I was.
And I only squeezed harder.
How foolish I have been to follow the Book of Leaves to the end of the world, thinking it could absolve me of my sins.

So, this is television entertainment.

^

No comments: