Hecuba and other plays

In Short

This volume gathers five of Euripides's most gripping tragedies—Hecuba, Hercules (Hercules Furens), The Heraclidae, Rhesus, and Helen—along with the satirical satyr play The Cyclops and the domestic melodrama Andromache. Set against the backdrop of the Trojan War and its ruinous aftermath, these plays chart the fall of royal houses, the slaughter of innocent children, and the terrible vengeance of the defeated. Euripides strips away heroic grandeur to expose the cruelty of conquerors, the fickleness of the gods, and the desperate strategies of women and refugees struggling to survive in a shattered world.

The Story

The collection spans the brutal spectrum of mythic fallout, beginning with the complete collapse of Troy’s royal line and ending in exile and uncertain peace.

In Hecuba, the fallen Trojan queen languishes as a captive on the Thracian coast. Already grieving her city, she learns her daughter Polyxena must be sacrificed on Achilles’s tomb. Her misery turns to fury when the corpse of her young son Polydorus washes ashore, murdered by his trusted guardian King Polymestor for his gold. Denied help by the victorious Greeks, Hecuba lures Polymestor and his young sons into the captive women’s tents, where she slays the children and gouges out the king's eyes.

The Heraclidae shifts to Athens, where the children of the late Hercules flee the murderous persecution of King Eurystheus of Argos. Demophon, King of Athens, offers them sanctuary at Jove's altar, refusing to yield suppliants to an invading force. When an oracle demands a maiden of noble birth to secure victory, Macaria voluntarily offers her life. The Athenian forces defeat the Argives, capturing Eurystheus, whom Hercules’s mother Alcmena insists on executing despite Athenian laws protecting prisoners of war.

Hercules focuses on the hero's homecoming. Returning from the underworld, Hercules saves his wife Megara, his children, and his father Amphitryon from the usurper Lycus. But the goddess Juno inflicts a sudden, terrible madness upon him, causing him to slaughter his own wife and children with his arrows. Waking from his trance, Hercules is consumed by grief, but his friend Theseus arrives to offer him refuge in Athens.

In Rhesus, set during the Trojan War, the Thracian king arrives with gleaming golden armor to aid Troy, boasting of his power. However, Ulysses and Diomedes sneak into the camp at night, slaughtering Rhesus in his sleep.

Helen presents an alternate myth: the real Helen never went to Troy, but was whisked away to Egypt by Juno while a phantom of air fought the war. After years of isolation, Helen is reunited with the shipwrecked Menelaus, and together they trick the Egyptian king to escape back to Greece.

Finally, Andromache follows Hector’s widow, now a captive concubine to Neoptolemus in Thessaly. Terrified that Neoptolemus's childless wife Hermione and her father Menelaus will murder her infant son, Andromache seeks sanctuary at the temple of Thetis until the elderly King Peleus intervenes to save her.

How It Unfolds

The sacrificial demand Hecuba learns that the Grecian host requires the death of her daughter Polyxena to appease the ghost of Achilles before the fleet can set sail.

Vengeance in the dark Discovering her son Polydorus’s murdered body, Hecuba tricks Polymestor into her tent, where she slays his children and blinds him.

Sanctuary at Athens The helpless children of Hercules take refuge at an Athenian altar, forcing King Demophon to defend them against the tyrant Eurystheus.

Madness strikes the savior Hercules returns from the underworld to slay the usurper Lycus, only to be struck with divine frenzy and murder his own family.

Night raid on the Thracian chief King Rhesus arrives at Troy clad in golden armor, but Ulysses and Diomedes infiltrate the camp and murder him in his sleep.

Reunion in Egypt Menelaus washes ashore in Egypt, discovering his true wife Helen while the phantom that started the Trojan War vanishes into thin air.

Defending the captive heir The elderly King Peleus arrives at the temple of Thetis to shield Andromache and her young son from the murderous rage of Hermione and Menelaus.

The People

• Hecuba: The former Queen of Troy. Once a mother of legendary heroes, she wants only to protect her surviving children. Betrayed and childless, she transforms into a terrifying agent of retribution, blinding her enemy and slaying his offspring.
• Hercules: The ultimate hero who wants to protect his family from the tyrant Lycus. Struck down by Juno’s unprovoked madness, he turns his bow upon his own wife and children, waking up to find himself a crushed, broken man reliant on Theseus for a reason to live.
• Andromache: Hector’s widow, now a captive concubine to Neoptolemus. She wants to keep her small son alive while enduring the deadly jealousy of Hermione. She remains resilient and proud despite losing her husband, child, and home.
• Demophon: The King of Athens who refuses to surrender the suppliant children of Hercules to Argos. He balances political pressure with rigid piety, willing to risk war to preserve his city's honor.
• Polymestor: The Thracian king who breaks sacred hospitality by murdering the young prince Polydorus for Trojan gold. He ends up blinded, childless, and cursing the women who outwitted him.

In Its Own Voice

When Talthybius arrives to fetch the widowed queen from the dust, he marvels at how completely fortune can shatter human power:

"Ha! was not this the queen of wealthy Phrygia, / And was not she the happy Priam’s wife? / But her whole city by the hostile spear / Is now destroyed, while she a slave, bowed down / By age, and childless, stretched upon the ground, / Defiles with dust her miserable head."

Despairing over the fallen state of her house, Andromache laments how swiftly high lineage yields to bitter catastrophe:

"O Thebes, thou pride of Asia, from whose gate / I came resplendent with a plenteous dower, / To Priam’s regal house, the fruitful wife / Of Hector: his Andromache was erst / An envied name: but now am I more wretched / Than any woman..."

What It's Really About

Euripides focuses on the terrifying fragility of human status and the moral collapse brought on by senseless violence. Power is an illusion; kings become beggars, and victorious generals are held hostage by pride or divine malice. The plays repeatedly interrogate the ethics of war, showing how conflict degrades both the victims and the conquerors.

Equally central is the conflict between human law and divine caprice. Gods like Juno act out of spite, while mortals are left to pick up the pieces through solidarity and sanctuary. Beneath the bloody plot points lies a persistent question: how does one remain human when every institution—family, city, and temple—fails to offer safety?

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate high-stakes psychological drama, fierce female leads, and unsparing explorations of grief will find these plays deeply moving. Euripides speaks to our world with startling modernity; he does not gloss over the horrors of displacement, war crimes, or political expediency. His characters feel immediate because their anger and despair are thoroughly human.

The reader should be prepared for the formal conventions of 18th-century English verse translation, as Michael Wodhull's text uses elevated, archaic language ("thy front he covered," "erst," "corse") and heavy poetic inversions. The narrative structure relies heavily on off-stage action reported by messengers and formal debate scenes where characters argue points of justice like trial lawyers.

Yet beneath the stylized verse lies intense, visceral power. The terrifying tragedy of Hercules waking up beside his slain family, or the bitter satisfaction of Hecuba’s revenge, cuts straight through the centuries. What stays with you is Euripides’s profound empathy for the powerless and his refusal to offer easy, comforting answers.