Trojan Women
Also known as: The Trojan Women, Trojan Women, Troades
In the smoldering ruins of Troy, Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache, and a chorus of captives await their fates as Greek heralds assign them to masters, condemn Astyanax, and debate Helen’s guilt. The gods vow retribution against the victors as the women are led away and the city burns.
Description
Set immediately after the sack of Troy, Euripides’ tragedy presents the conquered women as the lens through which war’s cost is reckoned. Poseidon opens with a lament over fallen Troy; Athena, enraged by sacrilege, joins him to punish the Greek return. On the ground, Hecuba endures successive blows: Cassandra’s forced “marriage” to Agamemnon framed by grim prophecy, Andromache’s enslavement to Neoptolemus and the sentence against her child, Astyanax, whose death by being hurled from the walls seals Troy’s extinction. Talthybius, the herald, embodies uneasy obedience as he delivers orders yet aids the burial upon Hector’s shield. A forensic contest over Helen pits Hecuba’s accusations against Helen’s self-exoneration before Menelaus. The drama closes with the captives shipped into exile while flames consume the city and the gods’ storm gathers for Greek ships. The play is an unflinching anti-war lament that interrogates blame, power, and survival.
Historiography
The text survives largely complete in the medieval manuscript tradition of Euripides, supplemented by scholia and papyrus fragments. Ancient testimonia connect it with the lost companion plays Alexandros and Palamedes from the same Dionysia. Reception has emphasized its anti-war force, influencing adaptations from Seneca to modern stagings, and inspiring numerous translations (e.g., Coleridge, Murray, Lattimore, Vellacott). Its prologue and epilogue with gods have been central to debates about divine justice and political critique.
Date Notes
Produced at the City Dionysia in 415 BCE; commonly read against the backdrop of Athens’ recent actions in the Peloponnesian War. Part of a trilogy with Alexandros and Palamedes; the satyr play Sisyphus is doubtfully Euripidean.
Major Characters
- Hecuba
- Cassandra
- Andromache
- Helen
- Talthybius
- Menelaus
Myths
- Hecuba’s Lament over Fallen Troy
- Cassandra’s Fate
- Andromache and the Death of Astyanax
- The Enslavement of the Women of Troy
Facts
- Set before the ruined walls of Troy immediately after the city’s fall.
- Hecuba is allotted to Odysseus; Andromache to Neoptolemus; Cassandra to Agamemnon.
- Astyanax is executed by being thrown from the battlements to prevent a future avenger.
- Cassandra foretells Agamemnon’s murder upon his return to Argos.
- Helen argues self-exculpation; Hecuba prosecutes her case before Menelaus.
- Talthybius conveys Greek commands yet facilitates Astyanax’s burial rites.
- Hector’s shield is used as the bier for Astyanax’s funeral.
- Poseidon and Athena agree to wreck the Greek homecoming as divine retribution.
- The play was produced with the lost Alexandros and Palamedes in the same year.
- Often read as Euripides’ stark anti-war statement within late fifth-century Athenian drama.