Hecuba

Hecuba (Hekabē)in Greek myth, the (chief) wife of Priam, king of Troy, and mother of nineteen of his children including Hector, Helenus, Troilus, Paris, Cassandra, Creusa, and Polyxena. In the Iliad she remains in the background fulfilling the role of the bereaved queen destined to survive the sack of Troy and the loss of her husband and nearly all her children. In Greek tragedy this latter part of her life becomes a favourite subject, being rich in dramatic possibilities. In the Trojan Women of Euripides she is allotted as spoils of war to Odysseus, and has to endure the sacrifice of her daughter Polyxena on Achilles' tomb and the murder of Hector's only son Astyanax. In the Hecuba, also by Euripides, she discovers the murder of her last remaining son Polydorus (see below), and the prophecy is made that she will be metamorphosed into a bitch. Later legend elaborated upon this topic.