Ἑκάβη
Hecuba
Euripides · first staged c. 424 BC
Troy has fallen. The Greeks sacrifice Hecuba’s daughter Polyxena, and she finds her youngest son murdered by the king who sheltered him. She blinds the killer.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Πολυ.Ghost of Polydorus
- Εκ.Hecuba
- Χο.Chorus
- Πο.Polyxena
- Οδ.Odysseus
- Τα.Talthybius
- Θε.Maid
- Αγ.Agamemnon
- Πο.Polymestor
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Murray's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Eur. Hec. 1–1295
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
Troy has fallen and the Greek fleet is held on the coast of Thrace. The ghost of Hecuba's youngest son Polydorus opens the play: sent to Thrace for safety with a store of gold, he has been murdered by his host Polymestor. First the Greeks demand Hecuba's daughter Polyxena as a sacrifice to Achilles' ghost, and she goes bravely. Then a servant sent for water finds Polydorus's body on the shore. Hecuba lures Polymestor and his sons into the women's tents, kills the boys, and blinds him. Agamemnon judges the case and finds for her.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1850 plate of a black-figure vase in Berlin (Gerhard, Trinkschalen und Gefässe II, Taf. XVI): Neoptolemos leads veiled Polyxena to the tomb of Achilles, with a snake and a dog at the tomb and the winged shade of Achilles above; cut out and retraced.