![]() Priam and his wife Hecuba are advanced in age, and they know that the ransoming of Hector's body represents an existential threat: if the war should be lost or peace failed to be negotiated, Priam will be dead and Hecuba will fall from queen to slave. Despite Helen being the centerpiece of the Trojan War, it is really not a story of young love and beauty. Ransom is a male story, based on a male mythic legend powered by war. Of anger, of fury, that I am a woman and can do nothing but sit here and rage and weep while the body of my son, Hector, after eleven days and nights, is still out there on the plain…” Hecuba Mortality is not all bad, however, for without knowing it will all end, how can one truly enjoy the present? In this respect, Priam suggests, mortals may in fact hold an advantage over the gods. Priam is reflecting upon the fact that he is a king but by the grace of god and yet, even though a king, he is as mortal as a slave. The “this” which the gods themselves know nothing of is mortality. ![]() ![]() ![]() “The gods themselves know nothing of this, and in this respect, perhaps may envy us.” Priam ![]()
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