polydorus my babey :((( this was heartbreaking from start to finish thanks euripides!

"اللعنة.. اللعنة! لا يستطيع العبدُ الفكاكَ من أسرِهِ، فقد كُتِبَت الهزيمةُ عليه أبدًا!"

The way I read Hecuba is as extremely anti-war and as a plea for the cycle of vengeance and violence to stop. Which are extremely poignant themes in an Athens that had been carrying on a Peloponnesian War of escalating brutality for years when this play was written. This is seen in small touches - the denouncement of Odysseus as a shameful, populist politician (hello, Cleon!), the general lament over the 10 long years of war (Trojan and Peloponnesian), and the commiseration of the suffering Trojan women with the suffering counterparts on the opposite side in Sparta (this doesn't even need an aside).

But it's also seen, I think, in the main action of the play. Hecuba is brutally betrayed by two people from whom she has every right to expect good behavior - Odysseus has her daughter murdered after she saved him when he was in Troy (an unlikely interpretation of the Homeric story, but they both agree it happened), and Polymestor casually murders her son for gold, violating his sacred guest right. This after her city was sacked, her husband was murdered as a supplicant on the altar of Zeus the Protector, and she was enslaved. She's left with Cassandra as her surviving progeny, and well, that's not much of a comfort.

So her woes break her and she seeks petty revenge on the one person she can damage - Polymestor, after she convinces another great enemy, Agamemnon, not to interfere. The real tragedy is that she is consumed by her grief and desire for revenge and thus continues the cycle by murdering Polymestor's children and blinding the man himself. I can hear Euripides's plea to stop the ever-escalating violence - the Spartans had destroyed Plataea, and the Athenians likewise voted to destroy Mytilene, and the war looked as though it would never end, and Cleon wanted to send a fleet to Syracuse...

Naturally, Hecuba's violence rebounds upon herself, as a blinded and bitter Polymestor informs her that even Cassandra will be horribly murdered and Hecuba herself will be transformed into a dog (?) and drown. And of course, we the audience knows what happens to Agamemnon and Odysseus. Such are the rewards of war and violence.

Είμαι σε γνωστό πολυκατάστημα στον χώρο με τα βιβλία περιμένοντας να περάσει λίγη ώρα γιατί έχω ραντεβού με έναν φίλο. Ψάχνω να βρω ποιο βιβλίο θα χαζέψω για να σκοτώσω λίγο την ώρα μου. Επιλέγω το συγκεκριμένο με σκοπό να διαβάσω τις πρώτες σελίδες για να πάρω μια ιδέα από την γραφή του Ευριπίδη μιας που δεν είχα διαβάσει έως τότε.
...
Το βιβλίο τελειώνει. Έχω αργήσει στο ραντεβού. Και είμαι στο ταμείο με 4 βιβλία του Ευριπίδη.

he deserved it

Me ha gustado algo más que Las troyanas, quizá porque siendo poco más larga toca más temas y de una forma más profunda. Uno de los que más destaca es, para mi gusto, el machismo que dominaba en la época. Cómo Agamenón considera que muchas mujeres no son capaces de derrotar a un solo hombre, cómo se culpa a Helena de toda la desgracia de Troya y, sobre todo, lo más evidente: el trato que reciben las mujeres troyanas, destinadas a ser esclavas. Por no hablar del sacrificio sin ningún sentido de Políxena. Visto todo eso, el final no me parece demasiado trágico, la verdad.

Revenge, burials, justice, blinding, murdering children, Trojan War setting, it's got it all. Greek tragedy at its best.

Hecuba spent 2/3rd's of the play bemoaning her fall from Queen-status to slavery. In terms of creating a compelling plot, talking is less exciting than taking action. She turned from despair to anger real quick though when she found out that her daughter was going to be sacrificed to the ghost of Achilles and her son was murdered by the man who was entrusted to keep him safe. Then she turned truly cold-hearted, killing babies and blinding men. She got revenge for her children and served some Greek poetic justice. The language was at times, poetic and epic, but other times it read like: "Woman, what are you doing?" I would've liked a bit more continuity with the translation.

meh. tired of greek tragedies lol.

Είναι μέχρι να ξεπεράσεις το ... βάρος των αρχαίων αυτών τραγωδιών που σε κληρονομεί το σχολείο. Τότε αρχίζει να απολαμβάνεις το κείμενο, τη σοφία των τραγωδών αλλά και την διαχρονικότητα των κειμένων. Το πόσο επίκαιροι είναι οι αρχαίοι μας.
Η καταπληκτική αυτή σειρά των εκδόσεων ΚΑΚΤΟΣ που την ξεκίνησα τριάντα χρόνια πριν μέσα από προσφορά της πάλαι ποτέ ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΟΤΥΠΙΑΣ, όχι μόνο την απολαμβάνω μέχρι σήμερα αλλά σταδιακά την συμπληρώνω. Είναι εκδόσεις ζωής.....
Η Εκάβη είναι η επιτομή της δυστυχίας. Χάνει τον άντρα της Πρίαμο από τους Έλληνες, θυσιάζουν την κόρη της Πολυξένη ενώ σκοτώνεται και ο γιός της από τον άνθρωπο που τον φιλοξενούσε όταν είδε η πλάστιγγα της νίκης έγερνε υπέρ των Ελλήνων.
Τέτοια βιβλία στον βομαρδισμό των σημερινών εκδόσεων λειτουργούν και ως φιάλες οξυγόνου σε μια ολοένα δυστοπική κοινωνία...

I read this for my english course. It was extremely short which was a saving grace. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for this today but I just didn't enjoy it. It felt extremely repetitive and like nothing really progresses or gets resolved.

metin ne kadar iyiyse çeviri o kadar kötü. mitoloji yoluna baş koymadıysanız uzak durun. umarım en kısa zamanda düzgün bir çevirisi basılır.