Euripides: Hecuba (Euripides) (Euripides)

This book was an assigned book for a composition class I'm taking. Still - I feel in love with the translation - reading the play through and through again. The language and rhythms - the Greek tragedy is no surprise - and everyone is dead, dying, will die or prophesied to die - but I loved the control that Hecuba exerts over everyone even as a slave heading to her now service - her kingdom of Troy in ruins. After finishing... Read Full Review

Troy has fallen and its queen, Hecuba, has become the slave of Odysseus, who takes away her daughter Polyxena to be slain on the grave of Achilles. However, in this drama it is the earlier death of another child, Polydorus that provides the motivation for what comes to pass. This was a child who had been sent (according to Homer, there are various versions of this tale) for safety to the Thracian Chersonese. But now, after... Read Full Review

Hecuba is one of the most profound, and profoundly pessimistic dramas ever written. It shows Hecuba, who had been Queen of Troy, now facing the ultimate devastation. She has already lost everything except her two youngest children. Now she will lose them, not to war but to politics and human greed. She loses herself to the need for vengeance, succeeds and loses her humanity. It is a shattering story and the Introduction... Read Full Review

Hecuba was the wife of Priam, King of Troy, and the mother of Hector, Paris, Cassandra, and others. At the start of this play of Euripedes, the war between the Greeks and Troy is over and Hecuba is now a slave of Agamemnon. The ghost of Achilles had appeared and demanded a sacrifice over his tomb before the Greeks can set sail for home. They vote to sacrifice Polyxena, Hecuba's young daughter, despite the tears and entreaties... Read Full Review