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When Hecuba begs Hector to avoid a confrontation with Achilles, she does not only employ words but also body language: from the walls of Troy, the mother uncovers the breast which had fed him as a baby. The bare breast of Hecuba points to the problem of that trophe that sons owe to women, especially to mothers, whose role as protectors can nevertheless pose a threat to the plans and aims of men. This paper seeks to place this gesture of the supplicating mother in that Ancient Greek horizon of meaning in which gender, age and status generate obligations and behavioral expectations. Finally, it suggests a connection with other problems of interpretation in order to cast some new light on the role of women in the Iliad.