Hekabe, a Greek Tragedy written 424BCE.

A typical Greek Play; dramatic, entertaining, infuriating, covers a range of societal issues.

Ombre e vendette

Euripide pone a Troia, dopo la conquista achea (ambientazione perfetta per le sue tragedie), la vicenda terribile e spossante di Ecuba - le ombre di Polidoro e Achille annunciano e richiedono continui strazi per i suoi figli e l'unica spinta rimasta alla regina, dopo che le viene negato anche il sacrificio insieme a Polissena, è la vendetta contro il vile Polimestore, assassino del figlio.
La struttura è sempre basata sugli interventi del coro (forse meno protagonista del solito) e su sticomitie molto tragiche, creando una sorta di processo inarrestabile verso sventure e sofferenze sempre peggiori.
Molto interessante notare come Euripide rappresenti sempre Ulisse in forti tinte negative: qui è "l'astuto, dolce-parlante, piaggiator del volgo" - sembra quasi che il figlio di Laerte diventi per l'autore simbolo di demagoghi e sobillatori della plebe: si veda anche l'invettiva di Ecuba:

O ingrata razza voi che solo ambite
l'applauso popolar! Non v'avess'io
ma conosciuti, o iniqui, che gli amici
non vi grava tradir, se dir potete
una parola che alla plebe aggradi!

Lo stesso concetto emerge nella figura di Polimestore, che cerca di salvarsi con le belle parole, dopo aver compiuto i crimini più efferati. Non si può non notare che Euripide abbia qualcosa da dire anche ai contemporanei...

{3.5 stars}

This is not a happy read, where grief becomes vengeance in the name of justice.

As a play this is not an entertaining read but there are moments where I could feel Hecuba’s pain in her grief and loss, insurmountable pain that is added to when she discovers a trusted friend had murdered her young defenceless son. In revenge she blinds this friend and kills his two sons, then she eloquently argues her action, this is what’s surprising, why this play is worth reading, even in the depths of her grief reasoning and rational do not fail her.

توانایی اوریپید در نوشتن و ترکیب چندین عنصر مثل مرگ،انتقام،قتل،زنانگی،نقد به قوانین،نسل کشی،جنگ و..ان هم به صورت همزمان همیشه من رو در حیرت و لذت مداوم قرار میده.
هکوب،شهبانوی تروا، مفلوک ترین زن،کسیست که از تراژدی های از سر گذرانده اش هرچه بگوییم کم است. کسی که مرگ فرزندان،از عرش به فرش درامدن،و در نهایت به سگ تبدیل شدنش در اثار دیگر اوریپید همیشه چالش و زیبایی خاص خودش را به همراه داشته.
در این اثر هم شاهد مرگ دو فرزندش پولیکسنه و پولیدروس و خیانت دوستش پلیمستر و انتقام او از پلیمستر بودیم.
در نهایت نمایشنامه با بیان اینده‌ی اگاممنون و هکوب توسط پلیمستر به پایان رسید که بسیار جالب بود.
متن دائما در اوج بود و کوتاه بودن ان موجب راحتی برای خواندن در یک نشست بود.
در نهایت به نظر من هکوب یکی از شجاع ترینِ زنان و همینطور مفلوک ترین انهاست.

The play deals with typical Greek Theatre (in this case, post-Trojan War antics) -treachery! and murder! - with Hecuba and her children Polydorus and Polyxena taking center stage (haha! get it? center stage? hahahahaha!). The play picks up with the ghost of murdered-but-not-yet-discovered-to-be-murdered Polydorus haunting his mother’s nightmares, foreshadowing future unseemly events. Hecuba rants, rails, weeps, and orates. She does well arguing-bartering for the powers that be to spare the life of Polyxena, though it is unlikely to matter much, right? The gods, and Men (not Women), must have what they must have. And there is long-belabored speechifying about higher principles and the like, with the women often being the unfortunate loser in such principled debates and soliloquies, unsurprisingly. Still, Hecuba is not to be denied, and I loved the violence and savagery of her tactics. Polymestor has his due, in part anyway, via Dionysian prophecy, but the true fate of Hecuba has never been satisfactorily resolved. A perfectly appropriate close to a wildly emotional and extremely visceral play.

sick ass lines

Greek drama, especially Euripides, is always delicious!! And, interestingly (or sadly), much of what is going on in this play, which is 2500 years old, is still relevant today.

Favorite quote:
Hecuba I see.
I see that no one alive, no one, is free.
For some are slaves to money, others to chance,
or majority rule or man-made laws
that keep them from acting on their own good sense.
You're frightened, you bend to the crowd's beliefs.

Fate as unpredictable chaos. The aftermath of war. The mighty have fallen. Despair and revenge.

couldn't avenge her husband or most of her children but got gangster when she found out her baby boy was murdered!

Hecuba tells the stroy of a woman who has been made prisoner and has been separated from her family, with her husband being killed and her daughter being made a slave. When she finds out that her son is dead, she goes into a rage of both anger and sorrow.

While I thought that this was an okay play, I don't think that it's the best of Euripides for a couple of reasons. First of all, I did not feel like he did his best job with characterization in this case, which was disappointing to me. Hecuba herself is great, but it's not really enough to have one character be super developed, but one alone. Secondly, the plot felt a little slower than most of the good works of Euripides. So all in all, this is an average work for him- not the best, but certainly not the worst I've ever laid eyes on.

HECUBA
If by some magic, some gift of the gods, I could become all speech - tongues in my arms, hands that talked, voices from my hair and feet - then, all together, I'd fall and touch your knees, crying, begging, imploring with a thousand tongues. O master, greatest light of Hellas, hear me, help an old woman, though she's worth nothing, avenge her!(…)

CHORUS LEADER
How strange in their reversals are our lives!

*i did not read this exact translation, but this story by Euripides