The Hekabe-Agamemnon-Polymestor Triangle in "Hekabe" by Euripides

"Hecuba discovers the corpse of her son Polydorus,"
by André-Joseph Allan (1825-1926)

The captured Trojan Queen Hekabe suffers the loss of both her daughter Polyxena and her son Polydorus.  The Greeks have sacrificed Polyxena because she has been promised to join the slain Achilles in the afterworld.  Polydorus has been killed by the Thracian king Polymestor for the gold Polydorus had brought from Troy.

Hekabe tells the Greek king Agamemnon, "I seek revenge on one who well deserves it." Agamemnon agrees to allow Hekabe to pass through the ranks of his men in order to get near to Polymestor.

Hekabe feigns ignorance of her son's death to Polymestor, who lies to her in saying Polydorus remains alive.  Hekabe  and her chorus of Trojan women lure Polymestor and his young sons into her tent with a promise of a cache of jewels. Once inside the tent, he is blinded and his sons murdered.

Agamemnon as the Greek leader must tread a thin line.  His army has defeated Troy, and to save face with his men he must not be seen to give assistance to a Trojan Queen in her pursuit of revenge. Nevertheless he considers her to be in the right. As he says to the blind Polymestor,

What you have done we find contemptible ...
  not the sort of fault we overlook.
I would condemn myself in acquitting you.
And this I shall not do.
Since you have unleashed evil,
  you must let it drag you where it will*

Perhaps Hekabe gains satisfaction for her grief through her attack on Polymestor.  She never does get back at the Greeks for what they've done to Polyxena.  It is up to Agamemnon to assert his authority as king.  His unease in this role is evident when he says, "I have no liking for the place I'm in. If I judge another's wrongs, it is because I must." Heavy weighs the crown.

*From Euripides's "Hekabe," Robert Emmet Meagher, translator; Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers, 1995.