Playwright: Euripides
Published: c. 424 BC
Translator: William Arrowsmith
Synopsis: A tragedy set before the Greek forces depart after the sacking of Troy. Trojan Queen Hecuba, wife of Priam, has been reduced to servitude. Her daughter Polyxena is sacrificed by Odysseus and Agamemnon to appease the ghost of Achilles, who has immobilised their fleet. Hecuba’s grief is compounded when her son Polydorus is murdered by his guardian, King Polymester of Thrace, out of greed. Hecuba seeks her revenge with other Trojan women by blinding Polymester and killing his two sons.
What moved me: Polyxena – the embodiment of regal virtue – speaks to Hecuba of her impending doom. The hard sounds of ‘B’, ‘D’, and ‘G’ are unrelenting and make me feel like my feet have been tied to a concrete block and I’ve abandoned to the sea.
But now I die,
and you must see my death: –
butchered like a lamb
squalling with fright,
and the throat held taut
for the gashing knife,
and the gaping hole
where the breath of life
goes out,
and sinks
downward into dark
with the unconsolable dead.
