Hecuba

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This page is about the mythological figure; for the butterfly, see Morpho hecuba; for the asteroid, see 108 Hecuba
The death of Hector on a Roman sarcophagus, c. 200 AD
The death of Hector on a Roman sarcophagus, c. 200 AD

Hecuba (also Hekabe; Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη) was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy, with whom she had 19 children. She was of Phrygian birth; her father was Dymas, and her mother (Eunoë) was said to be a daughter of Sangarius, god of the Sangarius River, the principal river of ancient Phrygia.

In the Iliad, Hecuba appears as the mother of Hector, and laments his death in a well-known speech in Book 24 of the epic.

With the god Apollo, Hecuba had a son named Troilus. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated as long as Troilus reached the age of twenty alive. He was killed by Achilles during the Trojan War.

Polydorus, Priam's youngest son by Hecuba, was sent with gifts of jewelry and gold to the court of King Polymestor to keep him safe during the Trojan War. The fighting grew vicious and Priam was frightened for the child's safety. After Troy fell, Polymestor threw Polydorus to his death to take the treasure for himself. Hecuba, though she was enslaved by the Achaeans when the city fell, eventually avenged her son, blinding Polymestor and killing his children.

In another tradition, Hecuba went insane upon seeing the corpses of her children Polydorus and Polyxena. Dante described this episode, which he derived from Italian sources:

E quando la fortuna volse in basso
l'altezza de' Troian che tutto ardiva,
sì che 'nsieme col regno il re fu casso,
Ecuba trista, misera e cattiva,
poscia che vide Polissena morta,
e del suo Polidoro in su la riva
del mar si fu la dolorosa accorta,
forsennata latrò sì come cane...
And when fortune overturned the pride
of the Trojans, who dared everything, so that
both the king and his kingdom were destroyed,
Poor wretched captured Hecuba,
after she saw her Polyxena dead
and found her Polydorus on the beach,
was driven mad by sorrow
and began barking like a dog...

~ Inferno XXX: 13-20

A third story says that she was given to Odysseus as a slave, but as she snarled and cursed at him, the gods turned her into a dog, allowing her to escape.

[edit] Hecuba in arts and literature

[edit] Primary sources

[edit] Secondary sources

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  • Tsotakou-Karveli. Lexicon of Greek Mythology. Athens: Sokoli, 1990.
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