Free Essay on Hecabe :: Hecabe Essays

Free hear on Hecabe   Euripides play Hecabe, produced in 425 b.c.e., begins with an introduction from the ghost of Polydorus -- Priam and Hecabes modernest son who was send away with treasures to stay with a family friend, Polymestor, in Thrace for safekeeping. Troy has f all(prenominal)en immediately, and when news program reached Polymestor, he killed Polydorus and flung his corpse into the sea. Its due to float ashore today. Mean epoch, the ghost of Achilles has appeared to the Greeks and demanded afford Polyxena, another daughter of the former Trojan royal couple. Priam is dead. His widow has ofttimes to bear soon.   Hecabe has dreamt of these two children and bad omens. A Chorus of Trojan women, now slaves of Agamemnon, reports of the demands of the dead Achilles and the recent Greek debate. A woeful Hecabe predicates Polyxena but the lady friend seems more sorry for her mothers grief than for the loss of her own life.   Odysseus arrives and Heca be appeals to his sense of take note she reminds him that she alone recognized him in his disguise when he sneaked into Troy formerly but did not rat him out. So take her, Hecabe, instead of the girl. Odysseus employs whatever sophistry to weasel out of such a deal. He and Polyxena exit.   The Chorus speculates on where it will end up now. Thessaly? Athens? A Greek herald, Talthybius, wonders, is all our belief in gods a myth, a lie / Foolishly cherished, while blind hazard rules the world (77). He has the lamentable duty to inform Hecabe of Polyxenas noble death, who even as she died, took care to fall / Becomingly, hiding what should be hidden from mens view (79). Now Hecabe must prepare the frame for funeral rites. She sends an old attendant to fetch a jar of sea-water. Polydorus corpse is discovered, and Hecabe requests from Agamemnon the business to have vengeance against Polymestor. Agamemnon thinks that women -- cant do anything (89), but whatever.   Polymestor is sent for and brings his two young sons. He puts on a hypocritical yet cursory peril of sympathy. The gods dispose our fortunes / This way and that in sheer confusion, so that we / May hero-worship them through fear of the unknown (92).