| SLEEP IN SICILY.COM: a booking engine for serviced | | | | misery to her city and her people. Hecuba decides to |
| B&B in selected cities all over Sicily. It is likely to have | | | | share the burden of war and all throughout the play |
| the absolute competitive rates on three star B&B | | | | she imparts her pain but at the same time gaining |
| anywhere in Sicily. | | | | strength by planning a horrific revenge. Hecubas |
| The unique blend of unspoiled natural beauty and | | | | impersonates the continuity of the disorder that war |
| beaches and the finest surviving temples of Ancient | | | | brought. The spectator witnesses the gradual |
| Greece, makes Sicily a vacation destination like no | | | | decomposing humanity of this dethroned queen. The |
| other. For theatre enthusiasts, Ancient Greek Drama | | | | tragedy emphasises the transformation of this |
| is also available in Syracuse. | | | | character form a matriarch and grieving mother to a |
| The ancient Greek playwright Euripides (480 to 406 | | | | cruel being. |
| B.C) wrote works of tragedy and drama regarding | | | | Last year's protagonist in the same Greek Theatre |
| mythological characters and Greek heroines. Picking | | | | was Antigone (by Sophocles) who for twenty years |
| out from his prolific list of works, this year in the | | | | accompanied her father; she is the personification of |
| Greek Theatre of Syracuse, The Trojan Women and | | | | grace and patience. In contrast to Hecubas, she |
| Hecuba will intrigue the audience from 11th May to | | | | chose to be courageous after the great disaster of |
| 25th June. | | | | her youth without being menacing. In Antigone it was |
| Euripide's play analyses the fates of the royal women | | | | God's justice to be proved powerful in the constant |
| of Troy who are at the hands of Greek conquerors | | | | battle between human and divine law. In Hecubas, |
| who under the pretext of saving Helen, are more | | | | attack, war, honour and revenge play a key role in |
| deeply concerned by the rat race dominated by pride | | | | Euripide's work. Moreover, the audience will realize |
| and personal ambition. In this milieu, Eurpide makes of | | | | that history repeats itself and that people are |
| Hecuba the central figure of the two works, the | | | | incapable to prevent more of the same from |
| homonym tragedy Hecubas and the Trojan Women. | | | | happening as if humans have an innate inclination |
| At the end of the Trojan War after ten years of | | | | towards war and battle, thus instead of learning a |
| harsh fight and traumatic losses, the victorious | | | | lesson, like Hecubas, human beings tend to do worse |
| Greeks, led by their king, Agamemnon, and the great | | | | and perpetuate devastation and causing more pain |
| soldier Odysseus, have destroyed the city of Troy | | | | hence getting trapped in vicious circle. |
| and are returning home with the women of Troy | | | | It is interesting to highlight that in the Port of |
| enslaved as their war prize, amongst which there is | | | | Syracuse the Athenian fleet has been destroyed in |
| Hecuba, who once was queen of Troy. The play | | | | the last action of the Peloponnesian War. Prisoners |
| begins with Queen Hecuba devastated by the war | | | | were taken in the latomie (stone quarries) placed |
| and agonizing over the death of her husband, the | | | | nearby the Greek Theatre where many died of |
| king, her sons and her grandson. However, although | | | | hunger and hardships. However, Plutarco says that |
| being a spoil of war herself, she manifests her strong | | | | many survived because they could recite pieces form |
| character and superiority as from the beginning by | | | | Euripide's works. Knowing if this really happened is |
| shouting at the women enslaved on the shore. | | | | secondary to the fact that poetry can save our life. |
| Moreover she hates Helen for bringing so much | | | | |