Euripides: Hecuba

by John Harrison

Treating ancient plays as living drama. Classical Greek drama is brought vividly to life in this series of new translations. Students are encouraged to engage with the text through detailed commentaries, including suggestions for discussion and analysis. In addition, numerous practical questions stimulate ideas on staging and encourage students to explore the play's dramatic qualities. Hecuba is suitable for students of both Classical Civilisation and Drama. Useful features include full synopsis of the play, commentary alongside translation for easy reference and a comprehensive introduction to the Greek Theatre. Hecuba is aimed primarily at A-level and undergraduate students in the UK, and college students in North America.

Genres: Classics

Paperback

First published September 1, 2008

About the author

There are more than 16 authors in the GoodReads database with this name. This is John^Harrison (adventurer, writer, broadcaster & lecturer), . This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name.

After hitch-hiking from London to Johannesburg before he was 21, and two further years hitching around every country in South and Central America, John never really shook off the travel bug. He studied Latin American History and Sociology at university before becoming a language teacher in Spain and Portugal. He then worked as a tour guide for Journey Latin America, taking small groups to South America, and bringing most of them back. It was during this time that he started making his own expeditions – especially to the Amazon. A lover of wilderness, he has also canoed in Africa, Europe and North America.
‘Up the Creek: an Amazon Adventure’, originally published in 1986, and was reissued in February 2012, was an account of one of these journeys, and ‘Into the Amazon: an incredible story of survival in the jungle' was published in 2011.
The film ‘John Harrison Explorer’ was made for the ‘Voyager’ series by National Geographic in 1991, about a canoe journey on the Rio Ximim-Ximim in Brazil.
John has written and presented several radio programmes for the BBC, and contributed articles to many magazines and newspapers.
He has entertained audiences with more than 200 lectures over the last 25 years, including four talks at the Royal Geographical Society in London, (where he has also chaired three seminars on tropical forest expedition logistics), plus motivational seminars and visits to schools and Luncheon Clubs. He has also been an on-board speaker for the Cunard, Silversea, Seabourn, Holland America and Fred Olsen cruise lines.
He lives in Bristol in the UK with his wife and two children, where he has his own construction company.

Reviews

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a Hecuba stan first and a human being second!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

read for *uni* to compare the polymestor / polydorus story with the version presented by virgil in aeneid book 3. i've read it before, so i knew what happened - but i still love the juicy foreshadowing about agamemnon's death. it's interesting to note how much virgil alters the story in his aeneid though - he completely gets rid of hecuba and polyxena, and instead has polydorus killed by spears and turned into a tree rather than thrown in the sea. perhaps shows how the trojans are still rooted to this land, and aeneas needs to continue on and find an entirely new place without pollution from the trojan war.
also, i can never quite decide whether euripides is a misogynist, or is poking fun at misogynists. this reading made me think he's poking fun, especially cause most of the misogyny comes from polymestor.

[sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

i hate to say ‘get his ass’ because vengeance in greek tragedy is complex & arguably always begets more suffering but like….. get his ass

[Daniel Campos · Rating 5 out of 5]

En esta tragedia, Hécuba pasa de la impotencia de la víctima al empoderamiento de quien reclama y realiza justicia retributiva para sí misma. Comparada con "Andrómaca", en esta pieza son los seres humanos quienes resuelven sus asuntos, no un diosa ex machina, y para mí es una obra superior por ello.

[Dmk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this play in one breath. Yes, I read better plays, but this one was perhaps most successful in catching my attention. It's just one woman and horrors of her family, she tries to save as much as she can, but for most of the time all she can do is to beg more powerful men to help her.
Really great play, two tragedies that are coming together in order to ask for gloomy conclusion. Great discussion, strong monoloques and stuff like that, just cool, really cool.

Second reading
After reading (twice) Seneca's Troades I decided I must read this play once again. And once again I read this in one breath. But this time it felt less gloomy to me. Afterall Seneca is that really dark guy. And generaly I think story of Polyxena is better in Seneca's Troades, since he pushes the framing of her sacrifice as "marriage to Achilles" much further.
But story of Hecuba's son (possible completely made up by Euripides) is moving and complex story. Great and moving play.