Hecuba After the Fall of Troy
After Troy is destroyed, Queen Hecuba survives to witness further deaths within her family and becomes one of mythology's great figures of grief.
The Story
Hecuba had once been queen of Troy.
After the city fell, she possessed neither kingdom nor security.
Priam was dead.
Many of her sons had been killed.
Her surviving daughters faced captivity and violence at the hands of the victorious Greeks.
Among the most painful later traditions was the death of Polyxena.
The young Trojan princess was sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.
Hecuba was forced to endure the loss of another child after the war itself had already ended.
Euripides' tragedy Hecuba develops another catastrophe.
Hecuba discovers that her son Polydorus, who had been entrusted to a foreign ruler for safety, has been murdered for the treasure sent with him.
The bereaved queen then turns from mourning toward revenge.
Different traditions give Hecuba different final fates.
Some later accounts connect her with transformation into a dog.
What remains consistent is the transformation of her position.
The queen who once presided over the royal house of Troy becomes a captive whose suffering embodies the human cost of the city's destruction.
Key Figures
Why It Matters
Hecuba's post-war traditions shift attention from the warriors who captured Troy to the surviving Trojan women and the continuing consequences of victory.
Traditions & Variations
Hecuba's fate differs substantially between ancient authors. Her connections with Polyxena, Polydorus, revenge and eventual transformation belong to overlapping but not completely uniform traditions.