Where does the saying don't cut off your nose to spite your face come from?

The idiom means that you should not do something that affects you badly just to get even with someone.

It may have come from legends of pious women disfiguring themselves in order to protect their virginity. One example is a Mother Superior who had all of the nuns in her convent cut off their noses to make themselves physically unattractive to Viking raiders, who might be intent on raping them. Instead, the Vikings became angered and burned down the convent.