Binary Oppositions in Euripides' “Hecuba”

Abstract

It should not be difficult to see why the Euripides’ tragedy "Hecuba" is so popular in our days. It is particularly relevant and important for several reasons: 1. The flow of people into the world has fled from their own ruined countries; 2. In our country we have many parents whose children were killed; 3. We often are in dangerous of war.

Sometimes this drama is criticized for lack of a unified structure. Incorrectly. Polixena's death, the brutality of the enemy, represents only one side of Hecuba's misery; Polydoros's noble, broken friendship after the fall of Hecuba – the other. Without it, the tragedy of the slaves would not be completed. This is not a tragedy of suffering. It is a tragedy of action.

The tragedy of the main character ends with its moral destruction. Her destroyers are three men Agamemnon, Odysseus, Polymestor, and war as well. It is a bad world, a world of murder, betrayal, revenge, painted by Euripides. And yet, in this enormous evil there is a ray of consolation – in the same world is born the noble Polyxena, the good Talthibios, and many noble Greeks, who honored the girl both in life and after her death. Who portrays human decency in this play? Not the mighty kings, but the child who has not yet lived enough, a simple old man, nameless soldiers. They remain out of force and have no impact on the development of events in the play.

The article focuses on binary oppositions in tragedy, such as – Hecuba /polyxena, Hecuba/Agamemnon, Hecuba/Odysseus, Hecuba/Polymestor, Hecuba/polydorus, Hecuba/Akhilleus – which help us to present Hecabe's chareceter in different aspects.