Hecuba, in slavery after Troy's fall, fails to dissuade
Odysseus, whose life she once saved, from sacrificing her daughter
to honour his dead friend, Achilles; but the girl dies proudly,
true to her royal blood in surmounting degradation. Then Hecuba
learns of her sons' treacherous murder by a former ally; out of
her terrible loss comes determination for revenge, which she claims
as a right but how just is her horrific cruelty? How credible
against her earlier characterisation? The play has striking effects:
the ghost of the murdered son, and his murderer subsequently blinded;
poignant lyricism; vivid narratives; above all, a careful pattern
of scenes demonstrating the equivocal power of 'Persuasion, man's
only sovereign' (v.816). Hecuba is both a study of resilience
and weakness, and a typically Euripidean comment on the uncertain,
even collapsing, values of his time.
Christopher Collard is Emeritus Professor at The University of Wales Swansea and the General Editor of this series of Euripides plays.
226pp (1991) cl 236 5 £35 / $59.99, pb 237 3 £16.50 / $28
|
General Editor's Foreword GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE SERIES by Shirley Barlow INTRODUCTION TO HECUBA Manuscripts PARALLEL GREEK TEXT AND ENGLISH TRANSLATION COMMENTARY General Bibliography |
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