• Euripides' Hecuba
    • like Sophocles' Electra, focalizes on one character
    • but has two contrasting halves:
      • thru line 680, centers around the killing of Polyxena Hecuba's daughter
        • she cannot prevent this killing
        • also, it was decided by an assembly!
      • 680 to the end, centers around revenging the murder of her son Polydorus
        • she does take vengeance on Polymestor for killing Polydorus
          • her son Polydorus had been sent away from Troy to Polymestor to keep him safe, and a lot of property had been sent too
          • Polymestor killed Polydorus when Troy fell
    • once again, vengeance is treated as right and proper
      • any thinking culture or ethical code rejects doubling wrongdoing: it's not about Xtianity. Socrates clearly rejected it, as do many other cultures.
      • But vengeance has a very strong pull in us humans, and even in a society whose more intelligent elements reject it, it dominates pop culture and even lives in some of our supposed leaders
    • Themes of note:
    • once again, gods play a role
      • the winds delay the Greeks' departure until after she can exact revenge (lines 934) and change as soon as she does (1350)
        • cf. sacrifice of Iphigenia
      • a dream lets Hecuba know that Polydorus has been killed
    • once again, guest friendship is at the core, but perhaps more so reciprocity is at the core: the broader principle underlying guest friendship
      • Polydorus had been sent to Polymestor as a guestfriend who owed Troy hospitality
      • the story that Hecuba had saved Odysseus when he entered Troy as a spy (see Od. 4.235 and Hecuba 238f.) and so he owed her: he, of course, being Odysseus, does not honor that.
      • part of the reason why Agamemnon allows Hecuba to exact revenge on Polymestor is because he has Cassandra, Hecuba's daughter, as his concubine: reciprocity
    • sacrifice as a ritual was practiced in Greece, but we have no evidence that human sacrifice ever was: that seems to be limited to the mythical/heroic past. Euripides in particular was fascinated by it. All of the following plays be Euripides involve human sacrifice:
        • Heraclidae
        • Phoenician Women
        • Iphigenia at Aulis
        • Iphigenia at Taurus
    • A passage typically Euripidean in that it includes rational argument and different viewpoints: it bears marks of being inspired by oratory: Polyxena's speech 352-392:
        • Odysseus, I see that you are hiding
          your right hand underneath your cloak, and turning your face away, so I can't touch your beard.
          You're off the hook; don't worry. I refuse
          to call on Zeus, protector of suppliants.
          Since I'm compelled, I'll follow you, and also
          since death is what I want. If I resist
          I'll be no good, in love with mere survival.
          Why should I live? My father was the lord
          of all the Phrygians. That was my starting point.
          Then, I was raised on promises and hopes
          of royal marriage, and keen rivalry
          to see whose hearth and home I would belong to.
          Unlucky me--I was the princess once,
          first among the women of Ida, admired
          among the maidens, equal to the gods
          in all but one respect: mortality.
          And now I am a slave. the name, to start with--
          so unfamiliar!--makes me long for death.
          And then, I might get cruel-minded masters;
          whoever pays for me with silver--me,
          sister of Hector, and of many others!--
          will give me orders, tell me that I must
          make bread, and sweep the house, and do my weaving,
          spending painful days under compulsion.
          Some paid-for slave from somewhere will defile
          my bed, which was prestigious once, considered
          a prize for rulers. No! I'm free to close
          my eyes forever, turn from this day's light,
          give my body to Hades. Go ahead,
          Odysseus, lead me away now, and destroy me.
          I have no hope of any future joy.
          Mother, please don't say or do a thing
          to stop me. you should want, as much as I do,
          for me to die before submitting myself
          to painful humiliation, far beneath
          our family's level of distinction. Someone
          who's not familiar with the taste of troubles
          may wear the yoke, but it will hurt his neck.
          Such a person would be more fortunate
          dead than alive. A base life is a hardship.
  • Trojan Women
    • At the start, Athena and Poseidon plan a storm that will happen after the play's action: it is to punish Greek impiety during the sack of Troy
    • Hecuba is once again central, but the other women are definitely there and important too
    • Major theme is helplessness and fate
      • Hecuba and the chorus will be slaves and can only wail
      • Helen, Andromache, and Cassandra have more say
        • their sexuality is valuable
        • so is their social status
    • Cassandra's entrance at 315 is a shock: she is happy
      • she is happy bc she foresees the death of Agamemnon (and her own): she sees this as avenging Troy (360 ff)

        • I am victorious, mother! Crown my head
          with garlands, celebrate my royal marriage.
          Escort me. ...
          ...glorious Agamemnon, lord
          of the Achaeans, when he takes me as his bride
          will enter a marriage more troublesome than Helen's,
          for I will kill him. I'll exact the blood-price
          he owes me for my brothers and my father;
          I'll ravage           his home as he ravaged mine.
          ...I'll show you how our city, Troy,
          enjoys more blessings than the Greeks.
          ...
          The Greeks, to hunt down Helen--just one woman
          just one CYpris--slaughtered tens of thousands.
          Their general, wise man that he is,
          destroyed what is most precious for what's most
          despicable. He forfeited the joy of children
          in his home--all for his brother
          and a woman who was willingly abducted!
          ...
          They perished...
          they didn't see their children, and their wives
          could never wrap them in their burial robes;
          they lie in foreign soil, whole at home
          widows died alone, and parents lost
          children they had raided in vain.
          ...
          The Trojans, on the other hand, have won
          the greatest glory; man by man they perished
          fighting for their country....
          but all were carried back to their homes by loved ones,
          wrapped for burial ...
          As for Hector, he was the best, and he died famous
          ..
          If Paris hadn't married Zeus' daughter Helen,
          his marriage-bond would never have been mentioned.
          Yes, anyone with sense steers clear of war.
          But if war comes, a fine death is a crown
          upon the city's brow: the only shame in dying
          is to die disgracefully.
          So, mother, there is no need to feel pity
          for our land, or for the bedroom that awaits me.
          You see, with this marriage I shall rip to shreds
          the ones that we find most despicable.

    • 2nd episode: at 591 Andromache enters with Astyanax, going to Neoptolemus' ship.
      • at 736 Talthybius enters to say that Astyanax will be thrown from the walls.
      • That was decided by assembly!
    • at 879, Menelaus enters to say that he is going to take Helen home and kill her: there's a debate about Helen.
    • Astyanax killed and Andromache wants to bury him on Hector's shield.
    • Remains of Troy are burned.
  • What are these plays about?
    • Are they anti-war? For us, the answer seems to be yes.
    • For the Greeks, it is more complex: I suspect that they are more like the Iliad.
      • They contain a great deal of language about the glory of war while presenting the hazards of human life, how quickly everything can turn around.
      • They do depict horrors of war: is that necessarily anti-war? In some ways, yes.
    • Interestingly, the victors are subject to these turnabouts too: the win and then overreach and violate norms and limits and are punished for it.
      • They are also about hubris, the overstepping of limits and violation of norms. The reasons why the gods exhibit disfavor here is because the Greeks killed people such as Priam at altars. Polymestor violated guest friendship, etc.