Hecuba

Hecuba
Biographical information
Gender	Female
Alias	Queen of Troy
Family	Dymas (father) Eounoë (mother) Priam (husband) Hector and Paris (sons) Cassandra (daughter) Sangarius (maternal grandfather) Eioneus (paternal grandfather) Proetus of Argos (paternal ancestor) Perseus (distant relative)
Affiliation	Troy (formerly) Hecate
Residence	Troy (formerly) Hecate's temple The manse
Status	Mortal (formerly) Immortal
Physical description
Hair	Black
Height	Around the size of a rhino
Species	Legacy (formerly) Hellhound
Behind the scenes
Appearances	The House of Hades Wrath of the Triple Goddess

Hecuba is the former queen of Troy who was transformed into a hellhound by Hecate.

Biography

Early life

Hecate, her owner

Hecuba was the daughter of king Dymas of Phrygia, the son of Eioneus, the son of Proetus of Argos. Her mother was Euonoë, a naid daughter of the river god Sangarius. Hecuba was once the Queen of Troy, the wife of King Priam during the Trojan War, with whom she had nineteen children. These children included the warriors Hector and Paris, Creusa the wife of Aeneas, and the prophetess Cassandra.

She met Hector upon his return to the polis and offered him the libation cup, instructing him to offer it to Zeus and to drink of it himself. Taking Hector's advice, she chose a gown taken from Alexander's treasure to give as an offering to the goddess and leads the Trojan women to the temple of Athena to pray for help.

She pleaded with Hector not to fight Achilles, for fear of "never getting to mourn you laid out on a bier." She was stricken with anxiety upon hearing of Priam's plan to retrieve Hector's body from Achilles's hut. She offered Priam the libation cup and instructs him to pray to Zeus so that he might receive a favorable omen upon setting out towards the Achaean camp. Priam accepted and was rewarded with the requested omen. She lamented Hector's death in a well-known speech. After the fall of Troy, Hecuba was taken prisoner of war, but she managed to escape from her captors and, filled with desperation, jumped into the sea with the intention of committing suicide and ending her pain. Taking pity on Hecuba, Hecate turned her into a hellhound.

The Heroes of Olympus

The House of Hades

Hazel Levesque first caught a glimpse of Hecuba during her visiting of a ruined temple. She, along with the goddess Hecate and the polecat Gale, first appeared to Hazel as ghostly images. When Hazel asked Hecate who the dog was, Hecate told her that Hecuba was once the queen of Troy.

The Senior Year Adventures

Wrath of the Triple Goddess

Hecate enlists Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood to house-sit for her and look after Hecuba and Gale for a week while she's gone. After Grover drinks one of the goddess' concoctions, Hecuba and Gale escape and Percy is unable to find her, even with the help of Mrs. O'Leary. Chiron tells Percy about Hecuba's history as the queen of Troy and suggests that she's in Astoria because of the large Greek community there and Hecuba's desire for revenge on the Greeks for the fall of Troy.

In Astoria, the three and Nope the hellhound puppy find Hecuba looming over Sal's Souvlaki, having summoned half a dozen undead Trojan soldiers to terrorize the mortals. When Percy is grabbed by two of the soldiers, he's hit by visions of the fall of Troy from Hecuba's point of view, her grief and rage, upon seeing how his city, subjects and family were massacred mercilessly by the Greek army and transformation into a hellhound, causing Percy to realize that Hecuba just wants to make people feel her pain and grief. Percy, Annabeth and Grover are able to use Nope and his need for a mother to help calm Hecuba down, helping Hecuba to remember the good parts of being a mother instead of all of the pain that she'd been unable to properly express for centuries.

However, after Percy attaches a leash to her, Hecuba shadow travels away, dragging Percy and Nope with her through the shadow world to several different locations before finally arriving at the ruins of Troy. Sitting next to her, Percy opens up to Hecuba about his life, his concerns for his unborn sister, the people that he's lost and how Percy wants revenge when he loses someone. However, Percy remembers that his friends and mother want him to be happy, to find people who matter, and hang onto them for as long as he can and he encourages Hecuba to do the same with Hecate, Gale and Nope. Recalling how Zeus once turned Thalia Grace into a tree in order to save her, Percy suggests that Hecate had turned Hecuba into a hellhound in order to save her the only way that the goddess knew how. Hecuba agrees to return and Percy agrees not to put her on the leash again and to talk to Hecate about giving her more freedom.

The following day, she and Nope rest at the manse. When Gale returns, they greet each other. When Percy considers using Hecate's torches to rebuild the house, Hecuba states that she cannot control the ghosts they summon. On Halloween, she and Nope agree to help the others control the ghosts as they make their way back to the manse. After the ghosts have been summoned and convinced to help, they move out. She and Nope help coral the ghosts as they head back to the manse. Once repairs are completed, Percy drops a torch out of exhaustion and Annabeth picks it up, keeping the ghosts at bay. She and Nope help the daughter of Athena to minimal success. After some of the ghosts possess mortal, she and the others pets help Grover keep them at bay as Percy takes care of the ghosts not possessing people. Once the ghosts are defeated, everyone enjoys the party. She howls along to the music.

In the morning, Hecate returns and she and Gale greet the goddess. After Percy reveals the truth of the past week to Hecate, Hecuba and Gale urge him to request more freedom from the goddess as he promised.

Appearance

Hecuba is a rhino-sized Labrador retriever with black fur and red eyes.

Personality

Hecuba is a primarily melancholic hellhound. Her anger and pain over the fall of Troy has never faded after countless millennia, and she wishes that everyone felt her pain and sorrow.

Before, she had a certain resentment towards Hecate for turning her into a dog because she did not understand how that was a salvation and not a punishment.

Abilities

• Necromancy (limited): Hecuba is capable of summoning dead to a limited extent. She summoned a dozen Trojan soldiers to cause chaos. According to Grover, she can only use her power to terrorize, not assist like cleaning a house.
• Shadow Travel: Hecuba is able to Shadow Travel, shadow traveling to multiple locations before arriving at the ruins of Troy.