Books of Titans
Books of Titans Podcast
Hecabe by Euripides Podcast
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Hecabe by Euripides Podcast

Episode 225: It's the Innocent who Suffer Most
Hecabe with the Bodies of Her Children Polyxena and Polydoros at the Tomb of Achilles by Karl Russ

Hecabe has to be one of the most tragic figures in the canon. Wife and Queen of King Priam, she’s lost close to 50 sons and 50 daughters by the start of this tragedy play. Not only that, she’s lost her husband, Hector, Paris, and Troy where she was queen.

This play starts with one of her only surviving sons, Polydorus, appearing as a ghost and telling of his demise. Hecabe doesn’t know he’s dead yet, but we soon find out she has something else to lament. The ghost of Achilles has demanded the sacrifice of Polyxena, Hecabe’s daughter. Hecabe pleads with Odysseus to spare her daughter to no avail.

The fact that Agamemnon shows up in this play is quite striking. Ten years earlier, he had sacrificed his own daughter Iphegenia to ensure favorable winds to Troy for the Greek ships. Here, he’s present while another sacrifice, this time from the Trojan side, is required to bookend the Trojan War. The damning thing in these tragedies is that it’s the innocent who usually suffer the most.

It’s also fascinating that the last page provides a prophecy about Hecabe and Agamemnon. Hecabe is told (through Dionysus as told by Polymestor) that she will be transformed into a dog. It provides some insight into the effect of overwhelming grief on the mind. Agamemnon is told that his wife will kill him with an axe upon his return home (and that she will also kill Cassandra, another daughter of Hecabe). It makes you wonder if that was going through Agamemnon’s mind as he returned home to Clytemnestra.


In this episode, I give some backstory to Hecabe, share the themes and quotes that impacted me the most, and close with the One Thing I keep thinking about from this incredible tragedy by Euripides.

*Correction - in segment 1, I mistakenly say Priam killed Achilles. It was Paris that killed Achilles.

Discussion about this podcast

Books of Titans
Books of Titans Podcast
Welcome to the Books of Titans Podcast where I (Erik Rostad) seek truth in the world’s great books. My goal is to read 200 of The Great Books over the next 10 years and share what I’m learning. I’ll talk a bit about each book, tie ideas together from a variety of genres, and share the one thing I always hope to remember from each of the Great Books.
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Erik Rostad