Thucydides 3. 52-68 and Euripides' Hecuba

Abstract

UNTIL RECENTLY INTERPRETATIONS of the Hecuba were reasonably similar in their assessment of the affective powers of the play. Most commentators have felt that Hecuba's suffering is treated sympathetically in the first half of the play, but that her character suffers grotesque distortion during the revenge scenes; Odysseus has usually been described as cynical and brutal, Polyxena is the selfless martyr, Agamemnon a pusillanimous, intimidated King, while Polymestor appears to be a surprising variation on the role established by Hecuba.' But accepted opinion, ably represented and culminated by Conacher, has been contested by A. W. H. Adkins in Basic Greek Values in Euripides' Hecuba and Hercules Furens.2 Adkins' arguments on Greek values and the and co-operative excellences are now well known. Believing that traditional competitive values continued to hold the field in the twenties and that their use in the Hecuba would have significantly conditioned audience reaction, Adkins has directly and indirectly assailed several commonplaces of recent criticism. Among other positions which fall if Adkins' argument is valid are those which suppose that Odysseus' private debt to Hecuba would be considered by the audience more compelling (obligatory) than the public debt to Achilles: in Adkins's view Odysseus can reasonably demand the life of the slave Polyxena, and the Greek audience wasted no great sympathy on her, at any rate not so much as to affect its judgment. Throughout the play we are urged to see the claims of arete and philia, in the traditional sense, taking precedence over claims and persuasive definition pertaining to dike and charis. More fundamentally, what Adkins has taken from the play is the sense of conflict. Though the debate may be lively, Hecuba not only has no chance