Hecuba

"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 man
and care? Or do we, holding that the gods exist,
deceive ourselves with unsubstantial dreams
and lies, while random careless chance and change
alone 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. ( )