Hecuba of Troy
INTRODUCTION
GREAT WOMEN OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY is a series of short books for young and old introducing readers to the ancient world through its heroines. Whether simplified adaptations of classic tragedies by Euripides, Aeschylus and Sophocles or original works based on the surviving sources, these books aim to bring readers on a journey filled with excitement, drama, death and love, all while focussing on the women that have played such an important role in our history yet are still remembered as mere bystanders.
The series starts with six books: the tales of Helen, Electra, Ariadne, Antigone, Medea and Circe. While each book can be read separately, and in any order, there is an underlying thread that ultimately connects all these characters and provides a wider view of what it was to be a woman in the ancient Greek world.
The story of Helen begins with her birth from a swan’s egg, the result of Zeus’ liaison with her mother, Leda. Helen’s supernatural beauty is immediately obvious and affects her childhood in the palace of Sparta. The book then focusses on how men, such as Theseus and Paris, steal her away for her beauty and on seeing how much can be put down to her own choices.
In Mycenae, Helen’s niece, Electra, is married to a destitute farmer and lives a life of misery. While her husband is honourable, she has only one pair of clothes, and she still cuts her hair short in a sign of mourning for the killing of her father, Agamemnon, after his triumphant return from Troy. The only reason Electra has not killed herself is because she is waiting for her brother Orestes to come and help her take revenge against Aegisthus, the usurper, and Clytemnestra, his lover and their mother, who betrayed Agamemnon and killed him.
In her book, it is Ariadne herself who shares her memories from childhood and into adulthood. Helen’s abductor, Theseus, appears here too, and we are taken from Minoan palaces on Crete, with the great labyrinth built by Daedalus for Ariadne’s brother, the monstrous Minotaur, to the deserted island of Naxos, where Ariadne is abandoned by the traitorous Theseus on his way back to Athens. We see how on the brink of death, she is saved by the god Dionysus, who takes a keen interest in her, and how they end up as a couple. We are told of her sister Phaedra and her fate at the court of Athens.
We move on to a relation of Dionysus, Antigone, the daughter and granddaughter of Oedipus. After the discovery of Oedipus’ crimes, her family falls apart.
with: her concoctions and witchcraft are second to none. Made famous by her appearance in the Odyssey, Circe’s story looks at the time spent by Odysseus and his men on Aeaea but from her own perspective. The main part of each book is the novel itself. In writing these books, we researched the surviving ancient sources. Where a full-length play by one of the ancient Greek masters – such as Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides – survived, we have adapted that into a more modern novel, following its plot. This is the case with Electra, Medea and Antigone. Circe, Ariadne and Helen, on the other hand, are more original pieces in which we used information gained from surviving sources to create an engaging narrative and coherent whole. At the end of each book there is a small, more academic – but simply written – section that analyses the characters, the sources and the historical background.
The series has now been expanded to include four more women.
Most people know something of Medusa, the feared Gorgon who can turn people to stone at the mere sight of the snakes that grow from her head. Her story is usually told from the perspective of her murderer, Perseus; but few know what many ancient sources tell
us. This is a much sadder story, one that sees Medusa in a very different light than that of the evil monster.
Hecuba is also a woman who suffers terribly. She is the last queen of Troy and is famous for her many children, including Hector and Paris. She not only loses her city in the war but also all but three of her offspring. Her sole aim becomes to protect them, and should she fail in this, to have her revenge on the Achaeans who have acted against her family.
Penelope also suffers due to the Trojan War. After finding a good match in her husband Odysseus, she is left alone on Ithaca when he goes to fight, and then for even longer when he is lost on his return home. But she is not alone for too long: local boys come to court her and won’t take no for answer. She must use her tricks to fend them off, all while trying to protect her son Telemachus, who seems to be pursuing his own schemes.
The story of Alcestis, princess of Iolcus, is a little different. She marries the noble Admetus, but tragedy soon strikes, and her husband becomes fated to die. Thanks to the help of Apollo, someone can offer themselves in his place, and Alcestis steps in. A series of unexpected and ironic turns result in her being led from the underworld by Heracles – but will that be enough to return her to the land of the living?
Vittorio Mattioli, Mike French – 2025
Chapter I
The war had been raging for years, the dead piling upon the dead. There was no end in sight; at least, that’s what the Trojans hoped, because the alternative was worse. Almost a decade had passed, and there was a feeling amongst the nobles that the outcome would be a bad one.
The Achaeans were going to win.
Of course, no one spoke such words openly, but it was clear in their eyes that they thought it. It was as if men and women had already died but still moved and breathed. There was no one in Troy who had not lived the sorrow that the war brought. Mothers had lost sons. Wives had lost husbands. Brothers had lost brothers. And it was not long before the king and queen lost their kin too.
Priam had too many sons and daughters to count. Some numbered them in the hundreds. As for his wife, Queen Hecuba, she had raised 19 children. All the men, great princes of Troy, fought bravely for their homeland.
The first to die had been Antiphus, felled by the hand of Agamemnon, leader of the Achaean army. Then it had been the turn of fair Troilos, beheaded by Achilles on a sacred altar, a loss that had distressed all of Troy, as Troilos had been deeply loved by commonfolk and nobles alike.
Like any other mother, Hecuba worried deeply about her surviving sons and prayed to the gods profusely. When the possibility of losing the war became more real, she began her work to convince her husband to save their family.
There was not much that could be done, save for when it came to their youngest, Polydorus. He was a young boy – not yet a man, but no longer a child. Hecuba convinced Priam to send Polydorus away.
Priam smuggled the boy out of the city, away from their lands, and had him stay at the house of Polymestor, an old friend of Priam who lived in fertile Chersonese in Thrace. His people rode horses and fought bravely. Polymestor had been married to Priam and Hecuba’s daughter Ilione. Along with Polydorus, Priam also smuggled
out a large amount of gold. Should Troy fall, Polydorus and any other surviving children or grandchildren of Priam and Hecuba would not want for food and would be able to live well enough.
After Polydorus’ escape, several more of Hecuba’s children met their fate. Hector was killed by Achilles. He had led the Trojans valiantly, but after he felled Achilles’ friend, the greatest of the Achaeans brutally killed and mutilated the Trojan prince. The Achaean had not just slaughtered Hector in combat but had then used iron hooks to fasten the tendons of his feet to a rope he then attached to his chariot. He’d ridden to battle and around the Achaean camp with her son’s body dragging behind. She’d seen it from the walls of Troy. It was too far away for any details, but her mind’s eye had provided them in all their horror.
Her husband, the king, had dressed up as a beggar and snuck into the Achaean camp. He had fallen to his knees and begged Achilles for his son’s body. Achilles had been moved to tears
by Priam’s plight and had acceded. Hector’s body was returned to the Trojans the next day.
Hecuba had dreaded seeing what it would look like after 12 days of decomposition and the mistreatment it had been through. But the gods had protected Hector in death. Disgusted with what Achilles had done – an affront to the dead – the gods had preserved Hector’s body, and it was given its burial rights properly, as if he’d died in his sleep the night before. Nonetheless, she still had nightmares about it.
The losses continued, until Polydorus was Hecuba’s last remaining son. Just before his own death, Achilles had killed Hipponous. Pammon was killed by Achilles’ son, Neoptolemus. Paris himself, the great cause of the war, was killed by an arrow loosed by the Achaean Philoctetes.
By then, Troy had fallen and Hecuba had been captured by the enemy. On a morning just like any other, yet one that would mark her people's history for aeons to come, a group of soldiers had come for her and dragged her off from the palace to a slave camp. The destruction of her
