Character Analysis
Filomena's name means "lover of song" or "beloved," and we can see the connection to Filostrato. Because Boccaccio's work Il Filostrato, about the ill-fated love of Troilus and Cressida, was dedicated to Filomena, it's generally assumed that she's the cause of Filostrato's heartbreak in The Decameron.
Her name also has mythical associations. "Filomena" is thought to be a play on "Filomela," a princess in Greek mythology who was raped by her sister's husband and has her tongue torn out so she can't tell. But by weaving a tapestry she communicates the atrocity to her sister, who kills their son and cooks him up for the father. The husband chases the sisters down with an ax and they pray to the gods to be turned into birds.
Yowza.
One of Filomena's stories stacks up pretty well against Filostrato's story of the eaten heart. In this lovely tale, a young woman's brothers murder her lover and dump him in a grave. The dead lover appears to the lady in a dream and leads her to the grave, where she cuts off her lover's head, and keeps it, decomposing but still recognizable, in a pot of basil, which she waters with her tears until she dies. Tra-la-la.
Skeletons in the Closet
Boccaccio says that Filomena's cautiousness leads her to object at first to Pampinea's bold scheme for leaving Florence. But Filomena's objection is a curious one for a woman to voice:
'[...] every one of us is sufficiently adult enough to acknowledge that women, when left to themselves, are not the most rational of creatures, and that without the supervision of some man or other their capacity for getting things done is somewhat restricted. We are fickle, quarrelsome, suspicious, cowardly, and easily frightened [...].' (I.Introduction.17)
Her lack of confidence in her sisters' intelligence and self-control is pretty shocking, especially for someone as articulate as Filomena. It's possible that Filomena's past behavior has undermined her faith in her own self-control and her ability to manage her own affairs. We know that Boccaccio implies a disastrous involvement with Filostrato, but it isn't until we hear her song at the end of the seventh day that our suspicions are somewhat confirmed:
'If I perchance should hold thee once again,/I may not be the fool/That I have been before to let thee go.' (VII.Conclusion.550)
If this is a hint to Filostrato, it's possible that the unfortunate couple will still have a happy ending, assuming the plague or clinical depression doesn't get the one or other before they work it out.
Filomena's Stories
Filomena tells the following tales:
Melchizedek and Saladin (I.3)
Bernabo and Ambrogiuolo (II.9)
The Gentlewoman and the Confessor (III.3)
Isabetta and her Brothers (IV.5)
Nastagio degli Onesti (V.8)
Madonna Oretta (VI. 1)
Lodovico and Beatrice (VII. 7)
Calandrino and the Pig (VIII.6)
Madonna Francesca (IX.1)
Titus and Gisippus (X.8)