Euripides: Hecuba

by Helen P. Foley, London: Bloomsbury 2015, Pb 146 pages, ISBN:  978-1472569066 (£10.84). 

It is really with a great interest and curiosity that I have read this companion devoted to Euripides’ tragedy Hecuba.  It makes part of the nowadays quite large series of Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy, published by Bloomsbury editions under the supervision of Thomas Harrison.

Prof. Foley deals not only with the theoretical problems set by the Euripidean text but also with the lot of troubles that any stage director will have to face when performing the play.

As far as I was lucky enough to publish into Spanish the translation of the full text together with an introduction in order to stage the play myself on the Ancient Roman theatre of Segobriga 100 km. away from Madrid, I have really enjoyed the reading of the book.  May I say that I agree with most of the remarks made by the author.

The text itself covers a range of 90 pages. Some maps together with a list of illustrations, the usual acknowledgments and a short preface to be found at the beginning.  A very useful chronological tableau together with a glossary of ancient and technical terms, not simply theatrical terms, a list of notes and ten pages bibliography -most books and articles, as supposed, in English - to be found at the end. Between them there is a juicy solid concise approach to this strange but, even so, lovely play.

After setting the play in its context - that means inside the Saga of Troy - with allusions to the theatrical festivals and the mythical tradition, Prof. Foley analyses the dramatic structure of Hecuba. She tries to harmonise variety and unity. In fact it is the main character the old queen remaining non-stop on stage, who plays the role of a thread able to sew up different separate episodes.

Next chapters offer an accurate examination of the main episodes composing the tragedy; the fantastic impressive appearance of the very ghost of the young Polydoros over the tents of the Trojan camp at Chersonesos Bay. Then, the pathetic entrance of the old queen; later on the debate between Odysseus - the new master of Hecuba - and the queen herself; next the tragic Polyxena´s sacrifice vividly explained by Talthybios the permanent sympathetic Greek herald.  To end this first part of the play, Foley analyses Hecuba´s supplication speech addressed to Agamemnon.

Then the plan for revenge will start. This is the second part of the piece, the meaningful action. The old queen together with the Trojan slave women will blind Polimestor after deceiving him and will kill his two small children. I have enjoyed in a very special way reading carefully chapter 6 devoted to the Chorus. In a very simple but accurate way Foley points out all the different metrical schemes used by Euripides for these beautiful choral songs from aeolo-choriambic in the first stasimon, to iambic  in the second ,the most difficult dactylo-epitrite at  the third one and the very excited dochmiacs  in their last song.  Such a rhythmic variety should be reflected into an accurate translation. Foley however does not insist too much in the fact that this is a very active and acting chorus and not simply a singing one.

A short and very accurate survey about Revenge Tragedy points out that revenge theme has not been created by Euripides; it starts from Aeschylus ´ Oresteia.

To end the book one could enjoy a quick but quite detailed survey of performances of Hecuba/Hekabe along the 20th and 21st centuries mostly in United Kingdom and USA.  Should I say that HELIOS TEATRO has been performing the play for the last ten years at Festivals of Ancient Greek Drama held on the stages of most Ancient Roman theatres of Hispania.

To conclude: this is a very interesting book easy to be read and extremely useful for anybody wishing to face the challenge of staging a very peculiar Greek tragedy.

Jose Luis Navarro

Honorary Professor. Universidad Autónoma Madrid