Hecuba, (hekʹū-bä), the second wife of Priam, king of Troy. During the Trojan War she saw her husband and all but one of her sons killed. After the fall of Troy she fell into the hands of the Greeks as a slave, and, after suffering inhuman cruelties, threw herself into the sea. On this story Euripides founded one of his great tragedies, Hecuba.