#hekabe

[kexytimes]

"Priam's wretched wife lost all she had, until at last she lost her human form."

[theodysseyofhomer]

that one scene in hecuba

[hlblng]

"Never again, never again shall I look on the light of the sun" - Euripides' Hekabe (transl. Anne Carson)

When the Greeks sail to Troy to retrieve Helen, wife of Menelaos, and lay waste to the city of Troy, the greek army is prevented from sailing on in Aulis. Artemis has been angered and demands a blood sacrifice in exchange for the winds that will carry the ships to the shores of Ilium.

So Agamemnon, chief commander of the army of Hellas, sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia at the altar of the goddess. Her death in exchange for eternal glory.

After the sacking of Troy, the remnants of the victorious greek army make ready to sail for home. But Achilles' vengeful ghost halts the winds, demanding proper sacrifice at his grave. Achilles demands blood in exchange for the winds that will carry the ships to the shores of Hellas.

So Odysseus and Agamemnon choose Polyxena, the youngest daughter of Priam and Hekabe, a princess of Troy. Her death in exchange for a homecoming worthy of the victors of Troy.

Though these two events are 10 years apart in the context of the story of the Trojan war, these two girls have always been connected with each other in my head. I imagine them at a similar age, looking similar even. I imagine Agamemnon thinking of Iphigenia as he watches Polyxena bleed out in front of him. Two sides of the same coin.

[kallistoriae]

Now that the big war is over, dramatic focus shifts from the victors to the victims of it, but these victims are people expelled from life and time. Their past is canceled, their future empty. They have no gods at all. They seem caught in an inertia where significant action, should it occur, has to be motivated by ghosts.

— Anne Carson, preface to "Hekabe" in Grief Lessons

[pulledrounder]

Mitski, "I'm Your Man" // Donna Haraway, The Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness // Andrew Kane, "How to Be a Dog" // // Soccer Mommy, Your Dog // "this is the last time i beg for devotion" by violenttradwife // Anne Carson, Preface to Hekabe from Grief Lessons

[hekioftroy]

Greetings to Prince Hector! How do you feel about your mother Hecuba’s parents, King Dymas of Phrygia and Queen Eunoë?

My mother has always spoken of her homeland with great dignity, and thus I hold her parents in high esteem. Though I did not grow at their side, their blood flows through our family, and through my mother they shaped the strength and wisdom that guide our house even now.

Phrygia has long stood as friend and ally to Troy, and I consider that bond not merely political, but familial. A man honors those who came before him, for without them neither crown nor city would endure. So while my memories of them are carried through stories rather than personal meetings, I regard them with respect and love. They must have been remarkable souls to have raised someone like my sweet mother.

[lionofchaeronea]

A little mythologically inspired poetry for you today. I hope you like it.

TEXT:

HECUBA

The first howl had not left her lips when she whetted her claws on blind Polymestor, clever Odysseus, proud Agamemnon. Greeks and Thracians fell like trees in a gale. Surf licked their bodies. If she had had thumbs to hold torches, she would have finished Hector's work and set the ships ablaze.

The second howl was heard across the sea. Piercing Argos' cold halls, it reached Clytemnestra in her black robes. She too cried out. Wronged mother to wronged mother, their antiphon of grief maddened the waters.

[dearest-loveliest-elizabeth]

Just learnt about The Blues of Achilles by Joe Goodkin (a music album based on the iliad) and I’m screaming

The man who killed my father said / “Go and wait for me in bed” / You know the face that launched the ships / But do you know the slave with trembling lips? — Woman of the War (Briseis’ song)

LIKE HELLO??

And the rivers run red with our humanity — The War Lullaby (Achilles on the Battlefield)

Our son, our son, our son / Will never feel your light / He has your hair and eyes / May he also have your might — My Love (Andromache mourns Hector)

Blood will never make us whole / But I’ll fight until its rivers flow / And soak the ground that made you a ghost / And kill the man who took your soul / I’ve got grief as deep as the love that we shared / I’ve got pain as dark as the night / When you fell in the dust, I fell with you — Wrong From Right (Achilles Learns of Patroclus’ Death)

My love, my love, my love / Don’t you be afraid / I’ll be home before you know / Everything will be okay / My son, my son, my son / I hate to say goodbye / I’ll be back when the sun goes down / To sing you a lullaby — The Goodbye Lullaby (Hector Says Goodbye to His Family)

This is how it feels / I am a golden field of grain / Cut down by a farmer ‘til nothing remains / I am a field of grain — This is How It Feels (Chryseis’ Song)

Desired by many but loved by few / […] / In my heart I will bury shame / Like in my face I carry fame / When the war is done will I be the same / Did I leave or was I taken? / Does it really matter to the graves of / All the souls and the bodies they’ve forsaken / If I left or I was taken — Taken (Helen’s song)

So I’ll bathe your son’s body / Until it’s clean of dirt and sand / And with the tears you’ve left behind here / I’ll wash the grief off of my hands — Grief of My Hands (Achilles to Priam)

Now my tears finally release / To crash like waves upon the shore / Will they sow the seeds of peace? / Or will they grow the ghosts of war? — Somebody Loved (Reprise) [Hecuba Mourns Her Son]