43 pages • 1 hour read
EuripidesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Suffering is central to Euripides’s Hecuba, whose plot follows the misfortunes experienced by Hecuba after the sack of Troy, misfortunes that demonstrate the ups and downs of fate that no person can stand against. Hecuba especially is presented in the play as an exemplar of suffering. Hecuba has seen her city fall, her wealth destroyed, her husband killed, and her freedom taken away: It is not for nothing that she characterizes herself as “the queen of sorrow” (423). Hecuba’s downfall is so hard precisely because Hecuba was previously so privileged, having been a queen and a happy mother. Hecuba illustrates how sharply one’s life can take a turn for the worse, and how unbearable it is for the mighty to fall. Hence, for instance, the exclamation uttered by Talthybius when he sees Hecuba lying in the dust: “Oh horror! I am old, / But I would rather die than sink as low / As this poor woman has fallen now” (497-99).
By Euripides
Alcestis
Euripides
Cyclops
Euripides
Electra
Euripides
Helen
Euripides
Heracles
Euripides
Hippolytus
Euripides
Ion
Ed. John C. Gilbert, Euripides
Iphigenia in Aulis
Euripides
Medea
Euripides
Orestes
Euripides
The Bacchae
Euripides
Trojan Women
Euripides
9th-12th Grade Historical Fiction
View Collection
Ancient Greece
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
European History
View Collection
Fantasy
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Hate & Anger
View Collection
Mythology
View Collection
Revenge
View Collection
School Book List Titles
View Collection
Sexual Harassment & Violence
View Collection
Tragic Plays
View Collection
War
View Collection