In the play's opening, the ghost of Polydorus tells how when the war threatened Troy, he was sent to King Polymestor of Thrace for safekeeping, with gifts of gold and jewelry. It depicts Hecuba's grief over the death of her daughter Polyxena, and the revenge she takes for the murder of her youngest son Polydorus. Hecuba immediately suspects that Polymestor has killed her son for the treasure and, pushed now to the edge of madness by her sufferings, begins to plot her revenge. whose story is chronicled in the Iliad and other classical works of literature The central figure is Hecuba, wife of King Priam, formerly Queen of the now-fallen city. In “Hecuba”, there are no impersonal gods causing Hecuba‘s madness; she is brought low by politics, expediency and greed. Hecuba – Euripides | Play Summary & Analysis | Greek Mythology – Classical Literature, THE GHOST OF POLYDORUS, son of Hecuba and Priam, King of Troy, The herald Talthybius describes the death of, The two sons, unfortunate collateral victims of, It essentially falls into two parts: in the first part, which centres on the sacrificial death of. One of Hecuba's last remaining daughters, Polyxena, is to be killed on the tomb of Achilles as a blood sacrifice to his honor (reflecting the sacrifice of Iphigenia at the start of the war). Although Hecuba herself has far more excuse than the male characters for her atrocious behaviour, her psychological trauma turns her into as culpable a villain as any of them, extracting not one but two lives for the life of Polydorus in addition to blinding Polymestor. Hecuba, I feel compassion for thee and thy son and thy ill-fortune, as well as for thy suppliant gesture, and I would gladly see yon impious host pay thee this forfeit for the sake of heaven and justice, could I but find some way to help thee without appearing to the army to have plotted the death of the Thracian king for Cassandra's sake. A fresco in the Casa di Cecilio Iucundo at Pompeii shows a sad Hecuba looking down from a window on the procession that returns Hector's body to Troy. However, the play is also remarkable for the grace and purity of its style, and it abounds in striking scenes and beautiful poetical passages (a particularly good example being the description of the capture of Troy). Hecuba, Greek Hekabe, in Greek legend, the principal wife of the Trojan king Priam, mother of Hector, and daughter, according to some accounts, of the Phrygian king Dymas. [1], https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hecuba_(play)&oldid=962123493, Articles containing Ancient Greek-language text, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. The events take place on the coast of Thrace, as the Greek navy returns home from Troy. When the Greeks reached the Thracian Chersonese on their way home, she discovered that her son had been murdered and in revenge put out the eyes of Polymestor and murdered his two sons. Hecuba tells Polymestor she knows where the remaining treasures of Troy are hidden, and offers to tell him the secrets, to be passed on to Polydorus. Polymestor reveals a prophesy that Hecuba will die on the journey to Greece, and that her daughter Cassandra will die at the hands of Agamemnon‘s wife, Clytemnestra. Upon recognizing her son whom she thought safe, Hecuba reaches new heights of despair. The herald Talthybius describes the death of Polyxena, and the grief-stricken Hecuba orders that her corpse not be touched, calling for water for a ritual cleansing.