Once again I've read the Vellacott edition rather than this one, and looking through the quote page here for Euripides it's clear I'm missing out. This translation is frequently odd and stilted, bereft of any lyricism, and I wouldn't be surprised if Vellacott's opting for close or literal translations over poetical imagery and flow.

That said, he cannot entirely blunt the bloody and bitter power of this story. Very little plot, but the raw emotion is magnificent. I'm also very appreciative of how Euripides tears down the Greek 'heroes' - in Medea it was Jason, here it's Odysseus, Achilles, and Agamemnon (though if you've read Aeschylus you already know about that last one). It's intense, blistering stuff, and I think it's a shame the ancient Greek stuff doesn't seem to get performed much anymore, I couldn't keep myself from envisioning staging ideas, while reading this.

Also, it's Hecabe, ffs. Don't grant the Romans any posthumous victories, thank you very much.

"Pity me. I was a queen, now I’m your slave; a mother once with so many sons and daughters, now childless and old, cityless, friendless, the most wretched of mankind.”

This play follows the Trojan queen Hecabe who has been enslaved by the Greek army after the fall of her city and the deaths of her husband and her sons, apart from her youngest, Polydorus, whom she sent to safety when the war was still going on. This phenomenal tragedy centers on Hecabe's new unbearable situation in life, her love for her children and how far she is willing to go to defend and avenge those she loves.

I loved this play. It's deeply emotional, truly harrowing and one of the most emotionally impactful pieces of ancient greek literature. It's one of the most miserable things I have read ever. Hecabe's character is so vivid, so pitiful, so deadly in her fury and so vulnerable in her grief, and I found myself empathising with her with my whole heart. What she is living through is unimaginable, and I think this play captured the horror of her life now so well. The chorus of trojan women, now slaves to the greeks, also showed the brutal, horrifying and demeaning realities of slaves in their lamentations and songs. They liken themselves to being alive, yet dead at heart.These women are taken from their homes, separated from each other, taken to places they do not know, often made to serve their masters as sex slaves and they will never see their homes again. The love Hecabe and these women have for their lost city of Troy was also depicted in a really heartbreaking manner. You feel the grief they feel when they look at the Troy's smouldering ruins when you read their laments.

In ancient literature, women are often merely side characters, people who just stand there and have things done to them. They are often not the ones who do things themselves. But this is one of those rare gems where the whole plot revolves around women acting, making decisions, taking charge and doing things that the male characters in the play deem as deeds that women are unable to do. There are amazing, active women in greek myths - not always, but they are there if you look for them. Euripides is one of the best authors to go to if you want women characters who have strong, distinctive voices and who make impactful decisions.

Another aspect I really loved about the play was the relationships Hecabe had with her children. She loves her kids with her whole heart, and I loved how her love for them can both shatter her and give her such strength and courage. The way she reacted to her last son's, Polydorus's death, and what she did for him, to avenge him, was in some ways, satisfying, uplifting as well as grotesque and brutal. I also loved her relationship with Polyxena, a fascinating woman on her own - a line that moved me a lot was this: ”In her lies my joy, in her I forget troubles, and find comfort for all I have lost. She is my city now; my nurse, my staff, my guide.” The scene where they said their goodbyes was a tearjerker, truly devastating. Hecabe and Cassandra do no interact in the story, but she is shown to lament Cassandra's fate too, despite them (I think at least in most versions where they appear) not being that close and her, like everyone else, thinking Cassandra is simply mad.

The side characters in this play were done really well. Polymestor is one of the most despicable dudes I've read in a good while, Agamemnon was his annoying self (though he does have a few, teeny tiny moments of decency in this story), Odysseus was a mix of empathy, wicked cleverness and coldness, and Polyxena was a beautifully written, heartbreaking but admirable character. The way she accepted her fate, welcomed it even, was chilling to read. This speech by wrinkled my brain: ”For your unhappiness, mother, I weep and mourn with all my heart; But, for my own life, which is nothing now but shame and misery, I do not weep. I am to die, and that is the happier lot.” Polyxena is one of those characters I rarely think of, but whenever I have encountered her story, in any version, modern or ancient, I am always terribly moved by her end.

This is one of my new favorite pieces of ancient literature and my second favorite Euripides play of all time, surpassed only by Medea. It's a horrible, harrowing, heartbreaking story, but oh so brilliant. Also, it's an easy place to start with Euripides - the story does not require you to know much backstory, there are no gods or strange mystical events, and it's very rooted in its characters.

Ovid lifts nearly all of this to reuse in Book 13 of "The Metamorphoses." Unlike Euripides, Ovid isn't bound by the "unity of place" convention of Classical drama, so in the 'Metamorphoses' version we follow Polyxena all the way to the end, and don't have to hear of the action later in a Messenger speech. Ovid, naturally, also makes a lot more of Hecuba's change of form. And yet.... the original Euripides version has the edge for me. Hecuba's speeches are more powerful here, as is the death of Polymestor. This is some Grade A Greek tragedy.

Great read. I had to remember to slow down to really appreciate it but it was very interesting. Revenge and woe.

My god! Zeus, do you watch over human lives? Or do we cling to such belief in vain, when Chance, blind Chance, rules us till we die?

از بهترین تصمیم‌هایی که امسال گرفتم خوندن ایلیاد و اودیسه بود که انگار در دنیایی رو به روم باز کرده که کاملاً به روم بسته بود. مثلاً خوندن همین نمایشنامه‌ها و لذت بردن ازشون فقط اینجوری ممکن بود

هکابه نمایشنامه‌‌ایه که توسط اورپید در حدود سال ۴۲۴ قبل از میلاد نوشته شده و در مورد مادر هکتور و همسر پریامه. داستان از پس خرابه‌ی های تروی شروع میشه. از جایی که زنان تروی برده‌ی یونانی‌ها شدن و ملکه‌ی سابق تروی هم حالا یکی از اون‌هاست. زنی که نه تنها خیلی از فرزندانش و همسرش رو از دست داده، حالا آزادیش هم ازش گرفته شده. آیا این زن می‌تونه از این هم بدبخت‌تر بشه؟


اورپید همین ایده رو امتحان می‌کنه و دو فرزند دیگرش رو هم ازش در طول نمایش می‌گیره. پولوکسنا دخترش روی قبر آکیلیس قربانی میشه و آب جنازه‌ی پولیدروس پسر کوچکش که به دوستی سپرده شده بوده تا از خطر جنگ‌ در امان باشه رو هم به ساحل میاره


هکابه نمایش قدرت زنانه و از این جهت بسیار متفاوته. زنان در نمایشنامه‌ی اورپید زیبا و ضعیف نیستند. اون‌ها رنج‌دیده اما قوی هستند و انتقامشون رو می‌گیرند. اورپید حتی واقعیت وجود خدایان رو هم زیر سوال می‌بره و می‌پرسه که شاید جهان رو فقط شانس و احتمال کنترل می‌کنه. تمام این‌ها رو هم البته با نثری شاعرانه و زیبا انجام میده. در نهایت میشه گفت این اثر از پیشگامان آثار زنان و صد جنگه

من هم متن اصلی رو خوندم و هم اجرای بسیار خوب بی‌بی‌سی از این نمایش رو گوش کردم
کتاب رو می‌تونید از اینجا دانلود کنید
Maede's Books

۱۴۰۳/۳/۲۰

4 ☆

“O mother who bore me, I am going below.”


“I am dead before death, from pressure of evil.”

I would have gotten a lot more out of this if I knew the characters better. Euripides is writing about figures who show up in other works from around that time, and I haven't read the other works, so there's a lot I'm missing out on. What little knowledge I have of Hecuba, outside of this play, comes from Hamlet.

The only thing I could think while reading this was that it's ancient Greek fanfiction. It takes characters known from other works and puts them in new situations and has them make new choices.

And those choices are awful! The whole premise of this was just absolutely repulsive.

n  Some Favorite Quotes:n
how unfortunate art thou now, in the degree that thou wert once fortunate!

nor should the fortunate imagine their fortune will last forever.

but as thou has dared to do things dishonorable, endure now things unpleasant.

This was so immensely layered and affecting. Not only does he portray powerful, violent, oppressed women taking back agency and attacking the perpetrators of their slavery and suffering, but the play itself seems to be somewhat anti-war in tone. In a period of constant warfare, it’s so fascinating to me to see the radical ancient grecian minds who were free to express anti-societal opinion through their poetry. Also, the choral odes in this play were some of the best I have ever read, so beautiful. Euripides can do no wrong for me.

Hecuba, Queen of Troy, wife of Priam, mother to nineteen children including Hector, Paris, Cassandra, Polyxena, and Polydorus, is the central character in this eponymous tragedy and in Trojan Women. In both tragedy falls upon her in the loss of her husband, her land, city and peoples, and her children. In both her grief is beyond expression. The absent gods offer no sympathy and no relief. Through all of Trojan Women and half of Hecuba, though enraged by those that brought this upon her and her city, she determines to bear her fate despite the horror and her anguish. But in the second half of Hecuba she falls still further and savagely revenges herself. Her retribution is horrific, in the eyes of other characters, even unpardonable. This is a different Hecuba than the one we thought we knew; from the depths of unfathomable loss and despair, she falls still further; her very humanity is lost. Hecuba is tragedy piled upon tragedy.

That tragedy is set in coastal Thrace after the destruction of Troy and the enslavement of Hecuba and other Trojan women. Calm winds prevent the Greek fleet from sailing, so the army has chosen Polyxena, Hecuba’s beloved and only surviving daughter, as a blood sacrifice. Polyxena accepts her fate with dignity; there are worse things than dying, she says. By comparison, in Trojan Women Hecuba rejects this: “Life means hope. In death there is nothing at all.” Now, in Hecuba she begs to be killed alongside her daughter. Even this is denied her. She discovers the body of her youngest son who has been brutally murdered. Her despair turns into inhuman wrath and vengefulness.

Greek tragedy is nothing if not intense and emotionally moving. Hubris, a fall, revenge, anger, and despair are tragic themes, but here there is a hopelessness that overwhelms. There are no gods to console or assist, there is no deus ex machina, there is only unjust, implacable fortune. Polyxena alone escapes the unjustness and wretchedness, but only by accepting early death, even as a blood sacrifice, as preferable to living.

I recommend reading Trojan Women, also by Euripides, before reading Hecuba. Euripides is a playwright for the ages, and in Hecuba he moves beyond the conventions, which made him controversial in his day. Reading a tragedy like Hecuba is a matter of a few hours, but expect to spend several days afterward thinking about it … I know that’s the case for me.

This translation is part of the “Greek Tragedy in New Translations” series that I so admire.

Es una historia concisa pero vasta, en la que Hecuba quien antes era reina y ahora es esclava y la madre más desdichada, al ser huérfana de casi todos sus hijos, se entera que su hija será sacrificada, su tristeza se mezcla con el orgullo que siente al saber lo digna que se mantuvo su hija hasta su último minuto "Con dignidad hijate has expresado, pero junto a la dignidad estáel dolor".

Su desgracia aumenta, cuando al pedir agua para limpiar a su hija fallecida, le informan que se encontraron en el mar el cuerpo de su hijo menor, quien fue asesinado por su anfitrión y supuesto amigo, todo para quedarse con su oro.

Entonces, casi muerta de dolor, pero viva por venganza, le suplica a su captor que la deje vengarse, quien acepta y así, quien consideraba su enemigo, se vuelve su amigo y quien se consideraba su amigo, su enemigo.

Su venganza la logra dejando ciego al anfitrión y matando a sus hijos, por la gran injuria cometida hacia su huésped.

Una obra llena de sentimientos encontrados, remarca el vaivén de la vida, mostrando que la vida cambia drasticamente al mostrar a la reina de Troya, ahora como la mujer más desdichada, y que una buena vida no es la que tiene todo, sino la que no tiene desgracias. "El más feliz es quien, día tras día, no topa con ningún infortunio"

This was super interesting!