She saw with her own eyes her eldest born Hector killed and insulted by Achilles.

Hecuba's life was one of grief and sorrow.

She saw her son Polites slain in front of her by Pyrrhus.

And she saw her husband, the aged Priam, dragged towards the household altar and ruthlessly butchered there.

After the fall of Troy she was carried into slavery.

Yet in her distress and despair, she plucked up her courage to avenge herself upon the Thracian king, who had murdered her son in order to get her son's gold.

She had the sad fate to see washed ashore the corpse of her youngest son Polydorus, who had been entrusted to the Thracian king for safekeeping.

She had the misfortune to witness her daughter Polyxena, her sole consolation in bondage, sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles.

Later, as Dionysushad prophesied, she was transformed into a dog with bloodshot eyes and, unable to endure the new misery, she leapt into the sea and thus ended her unfortunate life.

With her fifty children all dead she became the queen of sorrows from whom no other woman could obtain the crown.