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Penelope
Hecabe is the Trojan queen during the 10-year war with the Greek army. She is married to Priam and the mother of Polyxena, Cassandra, Hector, Paris, and Polydorus. Andromache is her daughter-in-law. Even after the city has fallen, Hecabe retains her characteristic poise and sense of entitlement, now colored with bitterness because of all she has lost. Having lost all of her sons to the war, she experiences grief for and resentment of the men who have left her and her daughters at the mercy of the Greeks. Odysseus, who is sympathetic to the old queen’s losses, helps her enact revenge against Polymestor, the Greek king who betrayed and killed her youngest son.
Hecabe Quotes in A Thousand Ships
The A Thousand Ships quotes below are all either spoken by Hecabe or refer to Hecabe. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 6: The Trojan Women Quotes
[Hecabe] was not so foolish as to believe that she herself would have the chance to punish all the traitors and murderers and wrongdoers who had contributed to the downfall of her city. But she would have the gods remember who they were.
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She would have been startled to discover that her daughter-in-law was doing precisely the opposite thing in her mind. Creusa, Theano, Crino: three Trojan women at least who were free, either in death or in life. Andromache marked each one with a silent joy. Everywhere she looked she could see only women in her own condition: fallen into slavery, the property of soldiers and thugs. But there were three who belonged to no one.
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Chapter 13: The Trojan Women Quotes
“Do you think that’s true?” Polyxena asked her mother. “Achilles was destined to be a killer?”
Hecabe shrugged her shoulders, but the cool breeze coming off the sea turned it into a shudder. Polyxena unwound her stole—once a fine wool, dyed a bright saffron yellow before it was smeared with grey streaks—and stood up to wrap it around her mother.
[…]
“If you think of him like that,” Polyxena said, “it means he had no choice in what he did. So how can we hate him, if he was just acting as the Fates demanded? If he had no more say in his life than you or I?”
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Chapter 16: The Trojan Women Quotes
“All [Menelaus] has ever wanted is to have Helen as his wife. He had her, he lost her, and now he has her again. My presence is scarcely required at all, so long as it cannot be said that I am with someone else.”
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“But you could have refused Paris,” Hecabe said. “To abandon your husband, your daughter…”
Helen shrugged. “Which of us can refuse Aphrodite?” she asked. “A god’s power is far greater than mine. When she urged me to accompany him to Troy, I tried to resist. But she gave me no choice. She told me what I must do and then she withdrew, and in her absence, I heard a high-pitched noise, a distant scream. […] That is what it means to refuse a god, it is to be driven mad.”
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Chapter 41: The Moirai Quotes
She felt no sorrow for these souls, because if she thought at all about the consequences of her actions, she would become paralysed and never spin again. But she did prefer it if one of the others made a mistake, because that led—as often as not—to a longer life rather than a shorter one. When the thread would not form, it could only mean a grieving mother, standing over a cradle, howling at the unhearing sky.
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Hecabe Character Timeline in A Thousand Ships
The timeline below shows where the character Hecabe appears in A Thousand Ships. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Creusa
...Aeneas and the city’s defenders, the plains were still a battlefield. King Priam and Queen Hecabe arrived and mediated the discussion. Creusa quieted Euryleon, despite how excited she was to introduce...
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...request that the Trojans take the horse and rob the Greeks of their safe passage. Hecabe briefly questioned Sinon’s story. Insisting the horse was cursed, Laocoon threw his spear into its...
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Chapter 3: The Trojan Women
...Trojan women sit near the shore, waiting for the Greeks to finish looting the city. Hecabe is among them. King Priam was murdered while kneeling in supplication to the gods, and...
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Hecabe waits with her daughters, Polyxena and Cassandra, and her daughter-in-law, Andromache, who was Hector’s wife....
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Chapter 6: The Trojan Women
Still on the shore, Hecabe takes stock of the other women. She notes that Creusa is missing and hopes she...
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Chapter 9: The Trojan Women
Back on the shore, the Greek soldiers allow the Trojan women to drink and eat. Hecabe is sure the Greeks intend to divide the women among themselves and contemplates which of...
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Chapter 13: The Trojan Women
...shore, the guards abandon the Trojan women after another soldier demands they follow him “immediately.” Hecabe disagrees with the assessment Polyxena made earlier, saying Achilles was a killer and would have...
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Chapter 16: The Trojan Women
...But like everyone else—even the women who hate her—Cassandra is struck by Helen’s godlike beauty. Hecabe coldly remarks that she assumed Menelaus would be looking for Helen. Helen implies that Menelaus...
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Andromache blames both Helen and Paris, but Hecabe insists Helen bears most of the blame. Helen argues that Paris was also married (albeit...
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Chapter 19: The Trojan Women
...Andromache asks why Cassandra is screaming. The seer claims her youngest brother, Polydorus (the one Hecabe and Priam sent away), is dead. Hecabe tells Cassandra to shut up—Polydorus is safe. Polyxena...
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Chapter 20: Oenone
...and bore a son. Gifted with prophecy and medicine, Oenone knew Paris was Priam and Hecabe’s son. They lived happily until the three goddesses forced Paris to settle their argument. The...
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Chapter 22: The Trojan Women
On the shore the next morning, the Greeks approach. Hecabe worries they will prevent her from burying Polydorus’s body. She blames herself for Troy’s downfall...
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Chapter 24: The Trojan Women
The Greeks arrive on the shore. Odysseus introduces himself to Hecabe, who knows it was his plan to build the wooden horse which led to Troy’s...
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Odysseus asks if Hecabe has any other sons. She replies they are all dead; she has only daughters now....
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Chapter 26: The Trojan Women
...remaining women are to be divided among the Greeks; they’ll be enslaved. Odysseus has claimed Hecabe, as Agamemnon prefers her daughters. Menelaus has requested Odysseus and his men retrieve Helen. Despite...
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Chapter 27: Calliope
...daughter of Zeus. Instead, Calliope intends to teach the poet a lesson by showing him Hecabe’s future, which Cassandra has known for some time. She believes this will teach him to...
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Chapter 28: Hecabe
When Odysseus mentions taking Hecabe to Thrace, Cassandra sees what will happen there. She tries and fails to quell the...
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...knows is a ruse—they won’t stay long. Odysseus tells Polymestor he has brought an old friend—Hecabe, who hopes to say goodbye to the son she secretly sent into the king’s care....
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Polymestor greets Hecabe with sympathy for her great losses. But Hecabe confronts him, accusing him of murdering Polydorus...
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Chapter 30: The Trojan Women
...soldiers approach the Trojan women on the shore. The man leading them is Menelaus—Helen’s husband. Hecabe remarks that he looks unhappy for a man whose wife has returned. Menelaus says Helen...
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Chapter 34: The Trojan Women
...more soldiers. They demand Hector’s infant son, Astyanax. Andromache wails and clutches her baby as Hecabe protests. Talthybius claims the child will certainly grow up hearing of Hector’s heroism and develop...
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Chapter 36: Cassandra
...terrible fate before passing out. Even asleep, she foresees herself being taken to Agamemnon. When Hecabe leaves with Odysseus and Neoptolemus takes Andromache, soldiers bring Cassandra to her captor. Agamemnon is...
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