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Hecuba| In Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy, and mother of 19 of his reputed 50 sons, including the Trojan warriors Hector and Paris. Her daughters included the seer Cassandra, fated never to be believed, and Polyxena, beloved by the Greek hero Achilles. She was captured by the Greeks after the fall of Troy, given to the hero Odysseus, and carried off as a slave. |
| Taken to the coast of Thrace, she discovered the body of her youngest son Polydorus, who had been murdered by Polymestor, king of the Thracian Chersonesus, and thrown into the sea. He had been entrusted to the king with a hoard of gold during the siege of Troy. After killing Polymestor and his two sons, she was transformed into a dog to escape the Thracians, and leapt into the sea. The promontary Cynossema is believed to be her tomb. |
| Her story was dramatized by Euripedes in Hecuba. The tragedy also incorporates the sacrifice of Hecuba's daughter Polyxena to the spirit of Achilles by his son Neoptolemus; her death was intended to ensure favourable winds for the departing fleets. |
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| Hecuba took out the largest robe, and the one that was most beautifully enriched with embroidery, as an offering to Minerva: it glittered like a star, and lay at the very bottom of the chest. So it has been since the days of Hecuba, and of Hector, Tamer of horses; inside the gates, the women with streaming hair and uplifted hands offering prayers, watching the world's combat from afar, filling their long, empty days with memories and fears; outside, the men, in fierce struggle with things divine and human, quenching memory in the stronger light of purpose, losing the sense of dread and even of wounds in the hurrying ardor of action. |
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