Ovid’s Metamorphoses #087/111: “Hecuba’s Grief”

What this project is about.  

This one is from Book 13.

Hecuba Blinding Polymestor by Giuseppe Crespi 

“And at a single leap scratched out his eyes. 

Her furies gave her supernatural strength; 

Her bloodstained fingers thrust holes in his head 

Where once his eyes had been.” 

This one is from Book 13.

How long it took to read this (aloud): 6 mins 15s

What it’s “about”: The lamentations! War is no fun. Revenge has its pleasures, even if they cost you dear…

Words I didn’t know: none

Quotable quotes

And every child I carried in my body 

Was born as victim for my enemy. 

I’ve grown too old for human feeling now; 

Why do I live? Or old age makes me wander 

Through these long days that have no end but night?

And

But she stood silent, all her words past speech, 

Her tears drowned in the desert of her grief . 

And like a desert rock she stood above him, 

Gazing at earth, or lifting eyes to heaven, 

As though to outstare heaven and the gods, 

With that same face she looked upon her son, 

To fix his wounds, to feed her raging mind. 

As if she were still queen, rage took her blood, 

Possessed her with a fury none could master, 

She saw the image her revenge would take.

AND

And at a single leap scratched out his eyes. 

Her furies gave her supernatural strength; 

Her bloodstained fingers thrust holes in his head 

Where once his eyes had been. When they had learned 

What had attacked their king, the Thracian guards 

Sought out the woman, raining spears and stones 

In her direction where she stood to meet them, 

Snapping and barking at the stones that fell. 

She had no words for speech. Yet where she stood 

The spot is called “The Dog” and it is said 

(Because of ancient wrongs) her voice still howls 

Throughout the wilderness of Thracian shores

How it lands to my eco-sensibility: xx

Obvious allusions, ways it was used (that I am aware of already) : xx

What I know I didn’t ‘get’: xx

To my knowledge, who’s used it why/how (RACC): Well, Euripedes, obvs

Hecuba (Ancient Greek: Ἑκάβη, Hekabē) is a tragedy by Euripides, written c. 424 BC. It takes place after the Trojan War but before the Greeks have departed Troy (roughly the same time as The Trojan Women, another play by Euripides). The central figure is Hecuba, wife of King Priam, formerly queen of the now-fallen city. It depicts Hecuba’s grief over the death of her daughter Polyxena and the revenge she takes for the murder of her youngest son, Polydorus.

Further research questions: xx

Anything else: xx

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