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The Trojan Women
Written by the great Athenian playwright Euripides (485-406 BC), this play was first
performed in 415 B.C. while preparations were underway for the great attack of Sicily
and the full scale resumption of the Peloponnesian War. The play is about the Trojan
War, which had occurred some 800 years previously, but the Athenian audience was
clever enough to infer the parallels Euripides was drawing for them.
Cast of Characters:
Poseidon - the Sea God, brother of Zeus
Athena - Goddess of wisdom, war and Athens, daughter of Zeus
Hecuba - Queen of Troy, wife of Priam, mother of Hector, Paris, Polyxena, and
Cassandra, among others.
Talthybius - Greek herald
Cassandra - Trojan princess and priestess beloved by Apollo. Because she refused his
bed, he punished her by giving her the gift of prophecy along with the curse that no one
would believe her.
Andromache - Hector's widow, mother of the infant Astyanax
Menelaus - King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, husband of Helen
Helen - Wife of Menelaus, kidnapped to Troy by Prince Paris
Chorus of Trojan Women - bummed after having their city burned and sacked
Remember that not much exposition was needed for mythologically based plays
because the entire audience already knew the stories. What they came to the
performance for was not the plot but the poetry of the writer's words and the themes he
could bring out by deepening the characterization of the original myths. While he
couldn't change the ending of these stories, he could change the character's personalities
and perspectives to some extent in order to make various points. Sophocles does this
somewhat subtlely; Euripides treated the myths far more ironically by drastically
changing the personalities of the characters and often verging on disrespect in his
portrayal of the gods. Aristotle said that drama should observe unities of time and
place. This means that the perfect drama occurs in the actual time the play takes and in
one place. Oedipus the King does. See if you think The Trojan Women does as well.
In Greek tragedy, all violence takes place off stage and is reported. Aristotle says the
purpose of tragedy was CATHARSIS, a beneficial emotional release. How would this
occur for Athens after seeing this play?
Euripides - author of nearly 100 plays. Seventeen full tragedies of his still exist. This
must be due in part to his great popularity among intellectuals and audiences long after
the fall of Greek civilization. Euripides was the most revolutionary of the Athenian
playwrights whose works come down to us. Euripides lived until 406, B.C. and seems
to have lived the last years of his life in Macedon, where his works were read eventually
by Philip II and eventually his son, Alexander the Great.
Pondering points for The Trojan Women:
The Gods: How does Euripides characterize the gods? Is his view of the gods similar to those of
Sophocles and Aeschylus?
Characters: Who are the sympathetic characters in this play? How is this different from the
sympathetic characters in the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles?
The Trojan War: a synopsis: Troy was a great ancient city near the Hellespont, an important strait
controlling trading routes to the Black Sea and the East. Troy was ruled by King Priam and his
wife, Queen Hecuba. They had many kids, among them Hector, a noble warrior; Paris, a playboy;
Cassandra, a priestess and prophetess; Deiphobus, a priest; Troilus, a young unsuccessful soldier
and lover; and Polyxena. Hector was married to Andromache, and they had an infant son named
Astyanax.
One day, three goddesses (Hera, Athena, Aphrodite) were arguing about which one was the
best. They made Paris choose. Each goddess, in typical Greek political fashion, tried to bribe him
to choose her. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, promised him Helen, the wife of King Menelaus
of Sparta, reputedly the most beautiful woman in the world. He chose Aphrodite, and she helped
Paris abduct Helen. Before Helen's marriage, her father had forced all of her suitors, mainly the
young princes of Greece, to pledge to always help her eventual husband in such an instance. Bound
in this way, Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, the most powerful of the Greek poli at this time (c.
1180 B.C.), led a great Greek fleet to Troy. To get a favorable wind, Agamemnon had to sacrifice
his daughter, Iphegenia, to Artemis. This did not bode well for his eventual homecoming ten years
later. Among the other Greek leaders at this war were Odysseus, the sly king of Ithaca; Nestor, the
aged king of Pylos; Diomedes, Odysseus's best friend; Ajax, the iron pumper; and Achilles, the
greatest warrior of the time. Achilles's mother Thetis had dipped him in charmed water at his birth;
the dipped parts of him would be invulnerable. Unfortunately, she held him by the ankle so part of
his heel was left unprotected. Fearing due to an oracle, she tried to hide him away in women's
clothing when the summons came, but eventually, he told her that he'd rather live a short glorious
life than a long boring one. (He's changed his mind when he shows up in Hades in Book XI of The
Odyssey.) He sets off for Troy with his buddy Patroklos.
The Trojans withdraw into the city, and nothing much happens for nine years. In the ninth
year, however, Agamemnon and Achilles argue over a captive woman, and Achilles decides to go
sulk. With Achilles brooding, the Trojans drive the Greeks back to the beach and threaten their
boats. Patroklos dons Achilles's armor to hearten the Greeks and does very well, but Fate has
decreed his death, and the gods help Hector do him in. This rouses Achilles to fury, and he returns
to battle and eventually kills Hector after chasing him seven times around the walls of Troy. It
seems that this should lead to a Greek victory, but soon thereafter, Paris tosses a spear (or shoots an
arrow) into Achilles's heel and both sides have lost their best soldier. In the tenth year, after
winning Achilles's armor over a disconsolate Ajax (who then kills himself), Odysseus has a plan.
The Greeks build a giant, hollowed out horse, pretend to sail for home, and leave the horse with
specially trained troops within. Despite Cassandra's warnings, the Trojans bring it into their city
and celebrate. That night, the Greeks return, and the soldiers in the horse let them into the city. The
city is burned to the ground and the Greeks kill most of the men and take the women and children
into slavery. Aeneas, a Trojan nobleman, escapes with his dad Anchises on his shoulders and a few
others and eventually founds the city of Rome (in legend, that is).