Hecuba was the wife of the powerful King of Troy Priam, and the mother of many children. The body of her oldest son Hector, who was slain early in the war between the Greeks and the Trojans, was dragged around the walls of Troy; second son Paris was slain in the war; Polites died at the feet of his father; Deiphobus was mutilated and slain by Menelaus; daughter Cassandra was raped and carried back to Greece, a trophy of victory. In Ovid's Metamorphoses , she laments "for what does my calamitous old age preserve me." Hecuba is regarded as one of the truly tragic figures of mythology.
Rose was the wife of a powerful and wealthy man, Joseph, and the mother of seven children. The eldest, Rosemary, was mentally retarded. Son Joe was killed in battle in World War II; daughter Kathleen was killed, along with her fiancé, in an airplane crash; son John, elected President of the United States, was assassinated before he finished his first term; another son, Bobby, later ran for President but was assassinated during his campaign; fourth son Teddy was besieged by scandal; daughters Eunice and Patricia mourned the tragedies with their mother who, according to President Clinton, "played an extraordinary role in the life of an extraordinary family." Rose has often been called the most tragic woman in modern times. |
