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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
HECABE
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Euripides' play Hecabe, produced in 425 b.c.e., begins with an
introduction from the ghost of Polydorus -- Priam and Hecabe's youngest
son who was sent away with treasures to stay with a family friend,
Polymestor, in Thrace for safekeeping. Troy has fallen now, and when news
reached Polymestor, he killed Polydorus and flung his corpse into the
sea. It's due to float ashore today. Meanwhile, the ghost of Achilles has
appeared to the Greeks and demanded sacrifice: Polyxena, another daughter
of the former Trojan royal couple. Priam is dead. His widow has much to
bear soon.
Hecabe has dreamt of these two children and bad omens. A Chorus of Trojan
women, now slaves of Agamemnon, reports of the demands of the dead
Achilles and the recent Greek debate. A woeful Hecabe informs Polyxena
but the girl seems more sorry for her mother's grief than for the loss of
her own life.
Odysseus arrives and Hecabe appeals to his sense of honor: she reminds
him that she alone recognized him in his disguise when he sneaked into
Troy once but did not rat him out. So take her, Hecabe, instead of the
girl. Odysseus employs some sophistry to weasel out of such a deal. He
and Polyxena exit.
The Chorus speculates on where it will end up now. Thessaly? Athens? A
Greek herald, Talthybius, wonders, "is all our belief in gods a myth, a
lie / Foolishly cherished, while blind hazard rules the world" (77). He
has the lamentable duty to inform Hecabe of Polyxena's noble death, who
"even as she died, took care to fall / Becomingly, hiding what should be
hidden from men's view" (79). Now Hecabe must prepare the body for
funeral rites. She sends an old attendant to fetch a jar of sea-water.
Polydorus' corpse is discovered, and Hecabe requests from Agamemnon the
right to have vengeance against Polymestor. Agamemnon thinks that "women
-- can't do anything" (89), but whatever.
Polymestor is sent for and brings his two young sons. He puts on a
hypocritical yet cursory display of sympathy. "The gods dispose our
fortunes / This way and that in sheer confusion, so that we / May
reverence them through fear of the unknown" (92). He pretends Polydorus
is still alive. Hecabe tells him there's more treasure and tricks him
into a tent where she and the other women kill his sons and put out his
eyes. He emerges, blind and crawling after Hecabe.
Agamemnon must judge the events. Polymestor claims now that he feared
that Polydorus might raise an army to avenge the sacking of Troy. He says
the women gouged out his eyes with their brooches (whereas Ovid says
Hecabe scraped them out with her fingernails and kept digging at the
empty sockets -- see Metamorphoses, Book
13). Polymestor ends with a slur against women (99).
Hecabe explains what bull he is full of and convinces Agamemnon that
Polymestor is ruled by greed. Agamemnon agrees that Hecabe has suffered
adequately and the Polymestor got what he had coming to him. Polymestor
says that a prophet in Thrace revealed that Hecabe will turn into a dog
and throw herself from the masthead of the ship into the sea. "Cynossema,
the Dog's Grave, / A sign for sailors" (102) will be the place bearing
her name and memory. Cassandra and Agamemnon will be murdered by
Clytemnestra. Agamemnon has had enough. He orders that Polymestor be
gagged and thrown onto a desert island. Hecabe must attend the corpses of
two children; Agamemnon looks forward to the trip home; and the Chorus
resigns itself to slavery.
Euripides. Hecabe. Trans. Philip Vellacott. Medea and Other Plays. Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1963. 63-103, 201.
Powell, Barry. Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.