Euripides’ Hecuba, Summary Automatic translate

Hecuba (Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη) is a tragedy by Euripides, written around 424 BC. The action takes place on the Thracian Chersonesus, where the Achaean fleet moored, awaiting favorable winds after the fall of Troy. The tragedy is divided into two parts: the sacrifice of Hecuba’s daughter Polyxena and the mother’s revenge for the murder of her son Polydorus. Euripides’ version introduces a detail that has become canonical: Polyxena herself expresses a desire to die.

Prologue: A Voice from Beyond Death

The shade of Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba, emerges from the realm of the dead. He recounts how his father secretly transported him to Thrace to King Polymestor, placing a large sum of gold in his hands to protect him in the event of Troy’s fall. While the walls of Ilion held and Hector lived, the Thracian cherished the boy. When Troy fell, Polymestor killed Polydorus for the gold and threw his body into the sea. The shade warns: the ghost of Achilles has risen above his burial mound and stopped the fleet, demanding Polyxena as a sacrifice. Today, Hecuba will lose both her children.

The Sacrifice of Polyxena

A chorus of Trojan captives informs Hecuba: the Greek army has decided to sacrifice Polyxena on Achilles’ tomb. Odysseus has convinced the warriors that to refuse the best of the fallen heroes would dishonor all those who died for Greece. Hecuba reminds Odysseus: she once saved him when he snuck into Troy as a spy, dressed in rags, with his cheeks deliberately cut. Odysseus acknowledges his duty but remains adamant: the army has made its decision, and he has no right to alter it.

Polyxena emerges from the tent and interrupts her mother’s pleas. To live as a slave, to be bought by some stranger, to cook his stew, and to share a bed with a slave — all this is worse than death. She voluntarily follows Odysseus, asking only that he take her away quickly, lest her mother’s tears break her resolve. Hecuba faints.

The Death of Polyxena

The herald Talthybius recounts to Hecuba the events in detail. On the mound of Achilles, in the presence of the entire army, Neoptolemus stood Polyxena and announced that her father demanded her blood. The princess asked for one thing: to die free, unconquered by the hands of others.

Agamemnon ordered her release. Polyxena tore her peplos from shoulder to waist, exposed her breast, and dropped to one knee, bidding Neoptolemus strike where he wished. He, overcome with both pity and duty, struck swiftly. Dying, she was mindful of propriety: she tried to fall with dignity, covering herself. The entire army rushed to cover her body with leaves and prepare a funeral pyre.

The body of Polydor

A slave girl sent to fetch water for Polyxena’s ablutions finds a man’s body on the shore, wrapped in a Trojan peplos. It’s Polydorus, washed up by the surf. Hecuba looks at her son and instantly reads the wounds: a spear blow, not waves. Polymestor killed him. He killed the child he swore to protect — for gold, after learning of Troy’s destruction.

Request to Agamemnon

Agamemnon arrives to hasten the burial. Hecuba begs him to punish the villain: the guest took another man’s child under his protection and betrayed him. She invokes the gods who guard the laws of hospitality and mentions Cassandra, who shares Agamemnon’s bed — Cassandra’s brother lies dead. Agamemnon is touched, but hesitant: the army considers Polymestor an ally, and to publicly abandon him would invite accusations of partiality. He agrees only to allow Hecuba to act independently.

Revenge

Through a servant, Hecuba summons Polymestor to her tent, ostensibly wanting to reveal Priam’s hidden gold. The Thracian appears with feigned sympathy, assuring him that Polydorus is alive and well, and enters with his sons, dismissing the guards.

Inside, the Trojan captives, feigning admiration, pick up Polymestor’s children and pass them from one to the other — away from their father. Then, blades emerge from beneath their clothing. Both boys are killed. The women hold the Thracian by the arms and legs, while Hecuba and her companions poke out his eyes with pins.

Blind Polymestor crawls out of the tent, feeling his way with his hands like a beast. He howls, threatening to tear the Trojan women to pieces with his teeth.

The Judgment of Agamemnon

Agamemnon, who had come running at the cries, listens to both sides. Polymestor declares that he killed the boy for the Greeks — to leave no living heirs to Troy. Hecuba replies: while Troy stood and Hector fought, the Thracian left the child alone; he killed him only when the gold was abandoned. Agamemnon rules in favor of Hecuba. Polymestor is taken to a deserted island.

Before he is led away, he pronounces prophecies: Hecuba will perish at sea and turn into a dog, her burial mound will become a landmark for sailors – the "Mound of the Dog"; Cassandra will be killed by Agamemnon’s wife, and Agamemnon himself will fall by her hand.

The wind finally rises. Hecuba goes to bury her son and daughter on the same pyre.