HECUBA (the Latin form of the Greek Hekabe), wife of Priam, is in Homer daughter of the Phrygian king Dymas, who dwelt on the bank of the Sangarius; but according to Euripides, Virgil, &c., her father was named Cisseus. According to Homer she was mother of nineteen of Priam’s fifty sons! When Troy was captured and Priam slain, she was made prisoner by the Greeks. Her fate is told in various ways, most of which connect her with the promontory Cynossema, on the Thracian shore of the Hellespont. According to Euripides {Hekabe), her youngest son Polydorus was placed during the siege under the care of Polymestor, king of Thrace. When the Greeks came to the Thracian Chersonese on their way home Hecuba discovered that her son Polydorus had been murdered, and in revenge she contrived to put out the eyes of Polymestor and murder his two sons. She was acquitted by Agamemnon; but, as Polymestor foretold, she was turned into a dog, and her grave became a mark for ships. Other tales about her may be found in Ovid {Met., xiii. 423 ff.} and Dictys. It is obvious from the tales of Hecuba’s transformation and death that she is a form of some goddess to whom dogs were sacred; and the analogy with Scylla is striking.