Well what a week, things have been crazy for my hubby at work so he has been pulling 12 hour days most days this week, so I haven't really seen much of him. I also ran myself out of energy Friday and had a lazier day, which was a nice change but at the same time I'm trying not to be annoyed at myself for taking a week day off. Other than that there hasn't been too much new, we did have some stunning days at the start of the week so I spent sometime outside in tee shirt and shorts, it was almost like summer. The rest of the week was cooler to remind me its only spring.
The Story
Hecabe starts with her son, Polydorus' ghost telling of the suffering to come. He tells of his death at the hand of Polymestor the king of Thrace where he had been sent for protection while Troy was under attack by the army of Agamemnon. Polymestor killed him for the gold he was sent with as a possible ransom for buying back his brothers in case the Trojans lost, his body was then thrown in the ocean. He also tells that his sister will be killed at the hands of the Achaeans as a sacrifice to the tomb of Achilles. And that his mother would see them both laid out dead the same day.
Hecabe enters with her daughter and is lamenting being taken into slavery. the chorus informs her that he has just come from the Achaean assembly and they have decided to sacrifice her daughter to Achilles, just as her brother ghost had predicted. Hacabe laments but her daughter laments only for Hacabe as she welcomes death as a princess to life as a slave.
Odysseus arrives to take her daughter to the tomb of Achilles. Hacabe pleads with him to go back and argue against this as repayment of her saving his life when he was spying on Troy. He argues that to do so would to be to not give Achilles his friendship in death and that is something he will not do. Hacabe then suggests her daughter pleads with him also but she replies that she is ready for death and will not oppose him and plead with her mother not to physically oppose him taking her away.
A messenger, Talthybius arrives and informs Hacabe that he daughter is dead and tells he of her noble death, and how she refused to be taken by force but gave herself to the priest, Achilles son, to be sacrificed. He also tells her how the Achaeans are preparing a tomb for her. Hacabe tells hims to go back and see that none of them touch her but leave her for her mother to prepare for burial. She also instructs her attendant to go and collect sea water for washing her daughters body and then head inside herself.
Hacabe's attendant returns with a body and calls Hacabe back outside. Initially Hacabe is confused as to why they have bought her daughters body to her but its is not long before they show her the body and she identifies her son.
Agamemnon comes looking for her as she has not arrived to bury her daughter and finds her distraught on the ground. she begs him to seek vengeance for her, at first he is hesitant because he will not avenge her daughter but once it transpires that her son has also been killed by the king of Thrace, he is much more sympathetic but will not raise a hand least his own Achaeans, who are also allies of Thrace be angered. Hacabe answer that with the help of the women she will take vengeance, all Agamemnon has to do is call Polymestor and his sons to come and see her at once.
Polymestor and his sons arrive and are quickly invited inside under the pretense of giving them hidden gold. Once inside the sons are killed and Polymestors eyes gouged out. He escapes the tent and calls for help from the Acheaens. Agamemnon arrives and wants to hear both side to judge them. Polymestor confesses to killing Polydorus, but tries to argue that it was to please the Acheaen allies. Hacabe argues that he did it for the gold, Agamemnon agrees with her. Polymestor lists of some prophecies he has been given about Hacabes death and the death of her one surviving daughter Cassandra. Agamemnon has him taken away.
Reflections
It is interesting to me that Euripides found the need to have the Ghost of Polydorus at the start of the play as we do see the same information unfold as the play goes on, a modern writer would probably have let you find out those details as they came to light. that being said it does set the scene very clearly for what is about to transpire.
Agamemnon's slight about whether the woman/women could indeed reap vengeance upon a man in his prime is rather misguided but it is also a relic of his time, when woman were mainly seen in the softer side of the ledger. We wouldn't think too much about the idea that a woman might seek vengeance herself, but both the seeking vengeance and the feebleness of women has been put aside in this day and age. That being said Hacabes does give examples where a group of women have overcome in violence a group of men by sheer numbers, so it is not that woman is the more docile but rather the physically less capable without training to change that. I mean its why we still gender segregate most sports.
At first this seemed like it would be your average revenge story and then it would end abruptly after the violence, Euripides surprised me a little with continuing to have Agamemnon judge between the two and therefore show Hacabe's position as in the right and to condemn Polymestor to his fate without retribution. The play still ends abruptly with Agamemnon sending Polymestor away.
There is a tidbit about the battle of Troy that we have not yet seen in the texts to date, that is that Odysseus entered Troy as a spy, and not only that but was found out by a couple of the women. It would be very interesting to find out what he said, or is supposed to have said, to the women to get them to let him go free, hopefully we can see this in later texts.
Comparison
Unlike Medea we do have some context going into this story of revenge rather than the abrupt start of Medea. We know the outline of the Trojan war and that Troy lost so to find the queen of Troy as a slave of the Acheaens is a logical next step in the overarching story. That being said like Medea that play starts with an explanation of new wrongs committed against the mother figure Hacabe. Both stories are that of a woman in a compromised position reaching out and dealing vengeance to those who wronged her. the big difference being that Hacabe was judged as just following her violence where as the Medea just ends with Medea escaping. I wonder if this is because there is no taboo at the time against revenge killing, as we see in Hacabe, but there is a big taboo about killings ones own offspring, as we see in Meade.
In a way this story follows on from The Trojan Women though if it was a true sequel in the modern sense we would have expected some mention of Polydorus in the Trojan Women. In both plays Hacabe is lamenting being taken into slavery although The Trojan women is set before it has truly happened while the Medea is after they have been taken away by sea, if not very far. Both plays though deal with the death of children of the defeated faction, In Hacabe it is Hacabe's daughter and therefore the sister of Hector and in The Trojan women it is his son.
Get a copy of Hacabe.
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