Hecuba rages inconsolably against the brutality of such an action, and resolves to take revenge. 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.
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.When Troy was captured by the Greeks, Hecuba was taken prisoner. Polymestor argues that Hecuba's revenge was a vile act, whereas his murder of Polydorus was intended to preserve the Greek victory and dispatch a young Trojan, a potential enemy of the Greeks. He re-enters blinded and savage, hunting as if a beast for the women who ruined him. English translation by E. P. Coleridge (Internet Classics Archive): Greek version with word-by-word translation (Perseus Project): Passer, deliciae meae puellae (Catullus 2), Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus (Catullus 5), Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire (Catullus 8), http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/hecuba.html, http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0097.
The prophets of Troy told her that this was a bad omen and predicted that if the child lived, he would be responsible for the fall of Troy.
Agamemnon is summoned to judge Polymestor and Hecuba.
Polymestor crawls out from the tent, blinded and in agony, and reduced to the level of an animal. The arguments take the form of a trial, and Hecuba delivers a rebuttal exposing Polymestor's speech as sophistry. Polymestor feigns many excuses for the murder of Polydorus, but Hecuba convinces Agamemnon that he slew her son purely for the sake of the gold. Hecuba (Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη, Hekabē) is a tragedy by Euripides written c. 424 BC. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. At the close of the play, Polymestor is banished by Agamemnon to live out his remaining years alone on a desert island.
Polyxena joins her mother in a moving and pitiful scene of lament, until Odysseus comes to fetch Polyxena for the sacrifice.
Hecuba, for her part, attempts to shame Odysseus into releasing her daughter, but he is unmoved.
At the risk of offending his Athenian audience.
She calls on the Greek leader Agamemnon for help, and he allows her to summon Polymestor to her.
In the first Choral interlude, the Chorus lament their own doomed fate, cursing the sea breeze that will carry them on ships to the foreign lands where they will live in slavery. 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.
Hecuba's daughter Cassandra is a concubine of Agamemnon so the two have some relationship to protect and Agamemnon listens.
Polyxena herself is resigned to her fate, declaring that she prefers death to slavery. The Player tells us that Hecuba's grief was profound and "Would have made milch the burning eyes of heaven/And passion in the gods." Hecuba convinces him and his sons to enter an offstage tent where she claims to have more personal treasures. Later, she was turned into a dog, and her grave became a mark for ships.
Troilus, Trojan prince in Greek mythology, son of King Priam and Queen, Hector, in Greek legend, the eldest son of the Trojan king Priam and his queen, Helenus, in Greek legend, son of King Priam of Troy and his wife. 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.