Hecuba (play)
Euripides' tragedy of a queen's grief and revenge.
Hecuba is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides, written around 424 BCE. The play is set after the fall of Troy but before the Greek fleet has departed, a timeframe roughly contemporary with Euripides' other work The Trojan Women. Its central figure is Hecuba, the former queen of Troy, who endures the sacrifice of her daughter Polyxena and the murder of her youngest son Polydorus, and ultimately exacts a brutal revenge.
Quick Facts
- Writer
- Euripides
- Chorus
- Captive Trojan Women
- Characters
- Ghost of Polydorus / Hecuba / Polyxena / Odysseus / Talthybius / Maid / Agamemnon / Polymestor, and his children
- Setting
- Greek camp upon the shore of the Thracian Chersonese
- Premiere Place
- Athens
- Original Language
- Ancient Greek
- Genre
- Tragedy
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The play opens with the ghost of Polydorus, Hecuba's youngest son, who reveals that he was sent to King Polymestor of Thrace for safekeeping with gold and jewels during the Trojan War. After Troy fell, Polymestor treacherously murdered Polydorus and seized the treasure. Polydorus has foreknowledge of many events and has haunted his mother's dreams. The action takes place on the Thracian coast as the Greek navy prepares to return home. Hecuba, now enslaved, mourns her losses and worries about her nightmare. The Chorus of young slave women brings news that Hecuba's daughter Polyxena is to be sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles. Greek commander Odysseus escorts Polyxena to her death despite Hecuba's pleas; Polyxena herself prefers death to slavery. The messenger Talthybius reports Polyxena's heroic death, and Hecuba sends a slave to fetch water to bathe the corpse.
Reader's Guide
Hecuba is significant as a powerful exploration of grief, vengeance, and the moral complexities of justice in the aftermath of war. The play's structure falls into two distinct parts: the sacrifice of Polyxena and Hecuba's revenge on Polymestor. This division allows Euripides to contrast the noble, willing death of Polyxena with the brutal, calculated violence of Hecuba's retaliation. The work raises questions about the nature of justice when traditional authority is absent, as Hecuba, a former queen now a slave, must navigate her revenge through manipulation and the reluctant support of Agamemnon. The play's legacy includes its influence on later literature and its continued performance, as seen in the 2018 film A Bread Factory, which features a performance of Hecuba using Diane Arnson Svarlien's translation. The play remains a subject of scholarly analysis, with studies examining its treatment of violence, rhetoric, and the portrayal of the 'other' in Greek tragedy.
Did You Know?
- The play's plot falls into two clearly distinguished parts: the sacrifice of Polyxena and Hecuba's revenge on Polymestor.
- Polymestor foretells the deaths of Hecuba by drowning and Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra.
- A performance of Hecuba is a focus of the 2018 two-part comedy film A Bread Factory.
- The ghost of Polydorus opens the play, revealing that he was murdered by King Polymestor for the treasure entrusted to him.
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