Precis - Rachel Sheftel

A Precis of Hecuba’s Second Agon

Hecuba, the former Trojan Queen, finds herself a slave to the Achaeans; however, her enslavement becomes the least of her troubles after she learns of the death of her daughter Polyxena, and the death of her last son Polydorus. In what could be called a second agon, Hecuba is making two overarching claims: 1) The first is that Polymestor, the man who brutally murdered her son, deserves to be punished. 2) The second is that Agamemnon, with whom she is in dialogue with, should be the one to help her on her quest for revenge. These two points comprise her ultimate persuasion of Agamemnon to join her cause.

            To make the claim that Polymestor deserves to be punished, Hecuba emphasizes the moral abhorrence of his crime. By appealing to Agamemnon’s judgement of what is ‘deserved’, Hecuba introduces the notion of injustice to make her case that Polymestor’s actions call for punishment. She says to Agamemnon that “if [her] treatment seems to [him] deserved, [she] will be content,” but goes on to point out the severity of Polymestor’s crime in order to show that it was morally reprehensible. Her ensuing description of Polymestor’s immorality suggests some facetiousness to her statement: it seems more like a tool of persuasion than a genuine concession. The persuasive effect is an emphasis on the fact that her treatment was not deserved. To show the extent of Polymestor’s wrongdoings, she speaks to the ethos of Greek society by focusing her attention on the important role of a host. She recounts how he was often “counted first of all [her] guest-friends and [met] with every kindness”, thereby implying that she acted as a host to him. She points out that as a host, she was kind and hospitable. By describing her benevolence towards him, she highlights by contrast how offensive his actions were as a host to Polydorus. Polydorus was Polymestor’s guest when Polymestor took his life. It is for that reason that she calls Polymestor a “godless host”. Her argument, put simply, is that Polymestor is both disregarding and disrespecting something that holds real moral obligation in their society: the role of the host. Beyond violating this role, Hecuba implies that Polymestor added insult to injury when he “deigned not to bury [Polydorus] but cast his body forth to sea.”

            She also argues for punishment by referring to the religious significance of Greek customs. Hecuba remarks that “the gods are strong, and custom too which prevails o’er them, for by custom it is that we believe in them and set up bounds of right and wrong for our lives.” She is showing that the customs Polymestor is subverting are ones that are enforced by the Gods. She argues that his actions were directly disobeying this pious morality by which even the Gods themselves abide. She tells Agamemnon that for a person to “murder guests or dare plunder the temples of gods” and escape retribution would mean the end of all justice as they know it. This statement also equates what Polymestor did to Polydorus, that is, murdering his guest, to “plundering the temples of gods.” Her veneration of the gods helps support her claim that Polymestor is deserving of punishment, because it suggests that to disparage them would be a serious crime. Hecuba claims that it is Agamemnon’s responsibility, as a man who maintains a moral compass and abides by Greek custom, to agree that Polymestor must be punished. She says, “For ‘tis ever a good man’s duty to succour the right, and to punish evil-doers wherever found.”

 This notion of civic duty leads her to her second claim that Agamemnon should help Hecuba with this act of revenge. Hecuba makes her second point, that it should be Agamemnon who comes to her aid- by reminding him that, every night, it is her daughter, Cassandra, whom he sleeps next to. She takes power for herself by claiming ownership of her daughter and the pleasure that her daughter has provided Agamemnon. Hecuba asks, “how then, king, wilt thou acknowledge those nights of rapture, or what return shall she my daughter or I her mother have for all the love she has lavished on her lord?” This assertion of power serves to manipulate Agamemnon into helping her with her revenge by instilling in him a sense of guilt. This is the first time in her petition that she is demanding something of Agamemnon and firmly telling him that she is entitled to something from him. However, she maintains balance in her argument by also remaining submissive to her master who is, crucially, the man with all of the authority. Hecuba portrays herself as meek and helpless. She objectifies herself to Agamemnon when she says “have pity on me, and, like an artist standing back from his picture, look on me and closely scan my piteous state.” In placing Agamemnon in the position of the creator, Hecuba elevates him, making him feel masterful. She belongs to him. She calls him “lord and master, most glorious light of Hellas.” For her goal of acquiring Agamemnon’s assistance, this submissiveness towards him is intended to flatter him in order to win him over. She also employs extreme pathos as a persuasive technique to prompt pity and plea for her case. She says that she is “utterly forlorn, the most wretched woman living. Ah! Woe is me!” This accentuates her servility and attempts to appeal to Agamemnon by gaining his sympathy.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, for Hecuba, her subservience and cries for sympathy, as well as her emphasis of Greek morality, secure her triumph. Agamemnon not only concedes that he has ‘compassion’ for her in response to her pathos, but concludes, by agreeing with her ethical view, that it “is the interest alike of citizen and state, that the wrong-doer be punished and the good man prosper.”