Hecuba

Also known as: HEC / HEC. / HECUBA · Family: Troy · Role: queen; mother of Polydore and Polyxena · First appears: Euripides, Hecuba — Scene 1

In Hecuba, Hecuba is queen of Troy and the mother of Polydore and Polyxena. She tells Polyxena that the Greeks have decreed her death at Achilles’s tomb: “My child, the common decree of the Greeks unites to slay thee at the tomb of the son of Peleus.” Hecuba recalls saving Odysseus when he came as a spy to Troy, and says Helen privately identified him, but Odysseus refuses to withdraw the army’s decision or to kill Hecuba alongside her daughter. Once the queen of Priam, she is now an aged, childless captive; she also remembers Paris as the son whose actions helped destroy Troy and condemns Helen and Paris as enemies.

When Polyxena says that Polydore still lives, Hecuba’s hope is later overturned by Polymestor, who reveals that he murdered the boy, entrusted to him by Priam. Hecuba lures Polymestor into the tent with the promise of hidden Trojan treasure, then joins the captive Trojan women in killing his children and blinding him. Agamemnon expresses pity for her and allows her revenge, then orders her to bury Polydore and the two dead children. In Rhesus, Hecuba acts as a patron to Rhesus, directing him to a separate place where his troops can sleep.

In The Trojan Captives, Hecuba sits as an aged slave in Agamemnon’s tent, and Odysseus receives her by lot: “By lot the king / Of Ithaca Ulysses hath obtained you.” She is destined for Odysseus’ house and transport to Greece, while Menelaus is associated with the destruction of Troy and Helen. She recalls the deaths of her sons and the loss of Cassandra and Polyxena, and hears that Hector’s son Astyanax has been condemned to die. Andromache entrusts Astyanax’s corpse to her for burial, after which Hecuba leaves her country as a slave while Troy’s walls, streets, and towers burn.