Hecuba was the queen of Troy during the Trojan War, whose story is told in the Iliad and other classic works of literature. In addition to being a queen, she was also a prophetess who would reveal several bad omens of future events involving the fall of Troy.
Origin
The exact origin of the queen of Troy is unknown. Some say that King Dimas, ruler of Phrygia, was Hecuba’s father, with the Naiad Euagora being her mother. Some accounts say that she was the daughter of King Ciseo of Thrace, and others mention Sangarius, one of the river gods, and the river nymph Metope as her parents. There are other accounts with different combinations.
Thus, her father was Ciseo, Dimas, Sangarius, or Xanthus, and her mother was Euagora, Eunoe (a nymph), Glaucippe, Metope, or Telecleia. The question of her paternity, and the combination of mother and father, is an open and highly varied issue. This was such a controversial topic that it was rumored that Tiberius had made his scholars nervous with questions about Hecuba’s paternity.
Family
Hecuba married King Priam, becoming his second wife. Together they had 19 children, some of the best known being Cassandra, Hector, Paris, and Polydorus. Some of Hecuba’s children would die at the hands of others, either in battle or through treachery.
History
The story of Hecuba takes place before, during, and after the Trojan War, and includes a series of battles and encounters with the gods.
Omens of Destruction
Hecuba’s pregnancy with Paris would prove to be a troubled one and would come to a head with the arrival of a prophetic dream. In this dream, instead of giving birth to a normal baby, she gave birth to a burning torch covered in snakes. She sought out the prophets of Troy to interpret this dream, and they revealed that it was an ominous omen.
The omen predicted that if her son lived, he would be responsible for the fall and destruction of Troy. Hecuba could not bear this news, and when Paris was being born, she ordered two of her servants to kill him. However, the servants could not bring themselves to murder a helpless baby and instead abandoned Paris on the side of a mountain to be taken by wild beasts. But a shepherd soon found Paris and raised him as his own son.
Many years later, Paris returned to Troy and started the Trojan War by stealing Helen, wife of King Menelaus, from Sparta. Since all the rulers of Greece had sworn to defend Helen, they declared war on Troy, sacking and burning the city and thus fulfilling the prophecy in a siege of ruin and flames.
The downfall of Hector
Hecuba’s involvement in the Trojan War included advising her son Hector when he returned to the city. She offered him the libation cup, urging him to make an offering to Zeus and also to drink from it himself. Hector advised his mother to make a deal with Athena, in which she would offer a dress from Alexander’s treasure to the goddess in exchange for help. The dress in question was beautifully adorned with embroidery, shining like a star whenever it caught even a glimmer of light.
The dress had been brought from Sidon when Alexander sailed the seas and was the work of Sidonian women. But Hecuba’s efforts went unanswered. In a last-ditch attempt, Hecuba begged Hector not to face Achilles, but he would not hear of it. That night, Hector fought Achilles and met his death.
When Hecuba later learned of Priam’s plan to recover Hector’s body from Achilles’ camp, she was distraught at the thought of losing a husband and a son on the same day. Hecuba mourned Hector’s death in a great speech, for he was the dearest of all her sons.
Apollo and Troilus
Hecuba would later have a son by Apollo, and another prophecy was made: if Troilus lived to the age of 20, Troy would not fall, despite the previous prophecy. But Achilles waited in ambush while Troilus rode his horse near a well in front of the city. Troilus fled to the temple of Apollo, where he was killed on the altar and then dragged away by his own horses, sealing the fate of the city and condemning it to ruin in fulfillment of the omen.
Slavery to Odysseus
As if she hadn’t already been through enough trials, Hecuba would be taken prisoner and then become a slave to Odysseus. Before the Trojan War, Odysseus had traveled through Thrace, where Hecuba had asked its ruler, King Polymestor, to protect her son Polydorus. When the Greeks arrived at the Thracian Chersonese on their way home, Hecuba discovered that Polymestor had betrayed her trust and killed Polydorus.
When she saw her son lying lifeless, she went mad and, in a fit of rage, gouged out Polymestor’s eyes and killed his sons. When Odysseus tried to stop her, the gods transformed her into a dog so that she could escape. She was never seen again, until her death when she threw herself into the sea. Her tomb was located on a rocky outcrop, the Hellespont between Greece and Turkey, and would become an important landmark for sailors.
Current influence
The story of Hecuba is mentioned several times in the Iliad, as well as in the Aeneid. She is also the subject or character of several plays, such as “Hecuba,” and the third in a series of tragedies about the Trojan War, “The Trojan Women,” by Euripides. In later times, she appears in Romantic literature, such as William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”
