Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death

Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death is an oil painting created by female French painter Constance Blanchard.

In 1835, she completed another version with the same theme of the Assumption of the Virgin (Une Assomption) and by 1838 she finished the Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death.

Instead of surrendering which would have led to lifelong enslavement, torture, and rape the women decided to throw their children off a cliff and tragically followed them falling to their death on the rocks while singing and dancing.

The French Ministry of Interior purchased Blanchard's Greek Women of Souli Running to Their Death on September 20, 1838, at the request of Caze, deputy for Haute-Garonne.

[7] An identical unsigned painting was completed around the same period which is now in Nicosia, Cyprus at the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation Cultural Center.

Delacroix popularized the Greek War for Independence (1821–1829) with a series of paintings and many French painters were eager to continue the theme.