im-not-mine:Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Hecuba Blinding Polymnestor, ca. 1710.Hecuba was a queen in Greek
im-not-mine:Giuseppe Maria Crespi, Hecuba Blinding Polymnestor, ca. 1710.Hecuba was a queen in Greek mythology, the wife of King Priam of Troy during the Trojan War, with whom she had 19 children. These children included several major characters of Homer’s Iliad such as the warriors Hector and Paris and the prophetess Cassandra.The Bibliotheca (Library) of Pseudo-Apollodorus states that Hecuba had a son named Troilus with the god Apollo. An oracle prophesied that Troy would not be defeated if Troilus reached the age of twenty alive, but he was killed by Achilles.Hecuba is a main character in two plays by Euripides: The Trojan Women and Hecuba. The Trojan Women describes the aftermath of the fall of Troy, including Hecuba’s enslavement by Odysseus. Hecuba also takes place just after the fall of Troy. Polydorus, the youngest son of Priam and Hecuba, is sent to King Polymestor for safekeeping, but when Troy falls, Polymestor murders Polydorus. Hecuba learns of this, and when Polymestor comes to the fallen city, Hecuba, by trickery, blinds him and kills his two sons.A third story says that when she was given to Odysseus as a slave, she snarled and cursed at him, so the gods turned her into a dog, allowing her to escape.In another tradition, Hecuba went mad upon seeing the corpses of her children Polydorus and Polyxena. -- source link