16 Hecuba
He cuba’s life was one of grief and sorrow. —
She saw withher own eyes her eldest born Hector killed and insulted by Achilles. —
She saw her son Polites slain in front of her by Pyrrhus. —
And she saw her husband,the aged Priam,dragged towards the household altar and ruthlessly butchered there. —
After the fall of Troy she was carried into slavery . —
Shehad the misfortune to witness her daughter Polyxena,her soleconsolation in bondage ,sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles. —
She had the sad fate to see washed ashore the corpse of her young estson Polydorus,who had been entrusted to the Thracian king for safekeeping. —
With her fifty children all dead she became thequeen of sorrows from whom no other woman could obtain the crown . —
Yet in her distress and despair,she plucked up hercourage to avenge herself upon the Thracian king,who had murdered her son in order to get her son’s gold. —
Later,as Dionysushad prophesied ,she was transformed into a dog with bloodshoteyes and,unable to endure the new misery,she leapt into thesea and thus ended her unfortunate life.