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    Hecuba
    Hecuba
    Hecuba
    Ebook62 pages41 minutes

    Hecuba

    By Euripides

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    About this ebook

    In the play's unconventional 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. But when Troy lost the war, Polymestor treacherously murdered Polydorus, and seized the treasure. Polydorus has foreknowledge of many of the play's events and haunted his mother's dreams the night before.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherInteractive Media
    Release dateOct 15, 2015
    ISBN9781911144113
    Author

    Euripides

    Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He was born on Salamis Island around 480 BC to his mother, Cleito, and father, Mnesarchus, a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives—Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons)—were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. He became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education. The details of his death are uncertain.

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    • 4/5
      "Where is greatness gone?," cries Hecuba, the widow of King Priam of Troy and now a prisoner of the Achaeans. The victors are eager to set sail for Greece and home, but foul winds hold them back. They are still camped on Asian shores, with the women of Troy assembled in tents as the spoils of war. Aged Hecuba, who has seen most of her family put to death, has with her only her youngest daughter, Polyxena. Her last remaining son, Polydorus, is safe with a nearby Thracian nobleman named Polymestor--or so she believes.But the ghost of mighty Achilles has appeared and demanded a sacrifice, nothing less than a princess of Troy. The Achaean soldiers are worried that, until they appease Achilles' spirit, the winds will not turn. Odysseus bears the news to Hecuba: her darling Polyxena must die. Hecuba pleads for her daughter's life with arguments that seem irresistible. But Odysseus is not moved: What can he do? The mob must be appeased! Polyxena bravely accepts her fate. At the very moment she is losing her daughter, Hecuba learns that the body of her son, Polydorus, has just washed ashore. He has been treacherously murdered by his host Polymestor. All the poor woman can think of now is revenge and death. An onlooker moans:O Zeus, what can I say? That you look on manand care? Or do we, holding that the gods exist, deceive ourselves with unsubstantial dreamsand lies, while random careless chance and changealone control the world?Euripides's play depicts a world where honor and nobility are on the wane. Odysseus and Agamemnon are demagogues, playing to the mob, going back on their word, granting justice only if it doesn't cost them popularity. They are put to shame by Polyxena, a little maiden who bares her breasts to the sword and gladly dies a free woman rather than live as a slave. This is not Euripides's best play, but it is a very emotional and revealing one that fills a sad chapter in the great epic of the Trojan War.

    Book preview

    Hecuba - Euripides

    HECUBA

    DRAMATIS PERSONAE

    THE GHOST OF POLYDORUS, son of HECUBA and Priam, King of Troy

    HECUBA, wife of Priam

    CHORUS OF CAPTIVE TROJAN WOMEN

    POLYXENA, daughter of HECUBA and Priam

    ODYSSEUS

    TALTHYBIUS, herald of AGAMEMNON

    MAID OF HECUBA

    AGAMEMNON

    POLYMESTOR, King of the Thracian Chersonese

    HECUBA

    SCENE

    Before AGAMEMNON›S tent in the Greek camp upon the shore of the Thracian Chersonese. The GHOST OF POLYDORUS appears.

    GHOST

    Lo! I am come from out the charnel-house and gates of gloom, where Hades dwells apart from gods, I Polydorus, a son of Hecuba the daughter of Cisseus and of Priam. Now my father, when Phrygia’s capital was threatened with destruction by the spear of Hellas, took alarm and conveyed me secretly from the land of Troy unto Polymestor’s house, his friend in Thrace, who sows these fruitful plains of Chersonese, curbing by his might a nation delighting in horses. And with me my father sent great store of gold by stealth, that, if ever Ilium’s walls should fall, his children that survived might not want for means to live. I was the youngest of Priam’s sons; and this it was that caused my stealthy removal from the land; for my childish arm availed not to carry weapons or to wield the spear. So long then as the bulwarks of our land stood firm, and Troy’s battlements abode unshaken, and my brother Hector prospered in his warring, I, poor child, grew up and flourished, like some vigorous shoot, at the court of the Thracian, my father’s friend. But when Troy fell and Hector lost his life and my father’s hearth was rooted up, and himself fell butchered at the god-built altar by the hands of Achilles’ murderous son; then did my father’s friend slay me his helpless guest for the sake of the gold, and thereafter cast me into the swell of the sea, to keep the gold for himself in his house. And there I lie one time upon the strand, another in the salt sea’s surge, drifting ever up and down upon the billows, unwept, unburied; but now am I hovering o’er the head of my dear mother Hecuba, a disembodied spirit, keeping my airy station these three days, ever since my poor mother came from Troy to linger here in Chersonese. Meantime all the Achaeans sit idly here in their ships at the shores of Thrace; for the son of Peleus, even Achilles, appeared above his tomb and stayed the whole host of Hellas, as they were making straight for home across the sea, demanding to have my sister Polyxena offered at his tomb, and to receive his guerdon. Andhe will obtain this prize, nor will they that are his friends refuse the gift; and on this very day is fate leading my sister to her doom. So willmy mother see two children dead at once, me and that ill-fated maid. For I, to win a grave, ah me! will appear amid the rippling waves before her bond-maid’s feet. Yes! I have won this boon from the powers below, that I should find tomb and fall into my mother’s hands; so shall I get my heart’s desire; wherefore I will go and waylay aged Hecuba, for yonder she passeth on her way from the shelter of Agamemnon›s tent, terrified at my spectre. Woe is thee! ah, mother mine! from a palace dragged to face a life of slavery! how sad thy lot, as sad as once ‹twas blest! Some god is now destroying thee, setting this in the balance to

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