Trojan Women

Fiction | Play | Adult

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Lines 1-484

Lines 485-828

Lines 829-1112

Lines 1113-End

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Lines 485-828Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Summary: Lines 485-735 (Choral Ode, Andromache)

Following Cassandra’s exit, Hecuba collapses in tears. As the Chorus attempts to help her up, she refuses aid and delivers a speech lamenting her downfall. She reflects upon her past happy life of comfort and familial duty, and contrasts it with her anticipated future as a slave: “I, who had a queen’s bed in the palace, will rest my shriveled carcass on the ground…” (lines 522-523; page 139).

The Chorus responds with an ode reliving the fall of Troy. They describe the giant wooden horse sent by the Greeks, which the Trojans brought inside their walls to dedicate as a gift to the goddess Athena. We hear about how joyful the Trojans were, unaware that the horse was full of Greek soldiers waiting to attack. As the Trojans sang and danced in celebration, the Greeks emerged, slaughtering the men and rounding up the women and children. This devastation occurred the previous night.

Andromache, the daughter-in-law of Hecuba and wife of the slain hero, Hector, enters on a wagon piled with the spoils of Troy. She and Hecuba share a song, in which the reflect upon their personal losses and the loss of the entire city.

Breaking out of song into spoken dialogue, Hecuba and Andromache update each other on recent developments. Hecuba tells Andromache that Cassandra has already been dragged away, and Andromache confirms what Talthybius had strongly hinted: that Hecuba’s daughter, Polyxena, is dead. Andromache says that she performed rudimentary mourning for Polyxena, and that she longs for death herself. Hecuba insists that as long as there is life, there is hope.

Andromache delivers an address to Hecuba and the Chorus, outlining the desperation of her situation. She argues that the oblivion of death is preferable to living through Troy’s downfall and her own sufferings. Andromache describes her married life with Hector, in which she behaved in precisely the manner of an ideal wife. Her good behavior has made her desirable to the Greeks, however, which is why she is now being forced into a relationship with the son of the Greek hero Achilles. Andromache debates with herself whether she ought to submit to her new ‘husband,’ or remain loyal to the dead Hector.

Hecuba responds by pointing out that sailors, when the sea is raging and they lose control of their ship, simply “ride the waves, wherever fortune drives them” (line 721; page 147). She advises Andromache to do the same, complying with her new husband and forgetting Hector, at least for the sake of her son, Astyanax. Hecuba suggests that Astyanax could even someday lead survivors to rebuild Troy.

Summary: Lines 736-828 (Andromache’s Farewell)

The Greek messenger Talthybius enters. As the Trojan women wait to hear his announcement, he behaves sheepishly and is reluctant to deliver his news. Andromache guesses that she will be separated from Astyanax, but Talthybius admits that the news is worse than that: the Greeks are going to throw Astyanax from the walls of Troy and kill him. Talthybius advises Andromache to accept her misfortune quietly and not to hurl curses at the Greeks. Though this won’t save Astyanax’s life, it will at least permit Andromache to give her son a proper burial.

Andromache delivers a farewell speech to her child (Astyanax’s age is not specified, but he is young enough that the adults don’t expect him to understand what is happening). She laments the loss of Hector, the child’s father, and as she pictures Astyanax’s inevitable death, she reflects that the performance of her maternal duties was all for nothing. Andromache curses Helen for bringing destruction to Troy, and gives her child over to the Greeks.

With Astyanax taken off-stage for his execution, Talthybius shows sympathy and regret for the deed. Hecuba beats her breast in mourning and declares that their suffering is now complete: “What is there left between us and immediate, total destruction?” (lines 827-828; page 151).

Lines 485-828 Analysis

The second episode, featuring Hecuba and Andromache, explores sophisticated themes relating to the women’s misfortune. One way in which they frame their downfall is through the ‘vicissitudes of fortune,’ a common trope in contemporary Greek literature.

The Trojans’ fall from grace is framed first through the lens of Hecuba’s misfortunes: “no woman in the world, Greek or barbarian, could boast of sons like mine. I saw them fall, struck down by the Greek spear” (lines 503-504; page 139). She reflects, too, that she was once wealthy and lived a life of comfort as a queen, and now faces a future of discomfort and mistreatment as a slave. As Hecuba concludes her lament before Andromache’s entrance, she says, “No one who hasn’t gone down to death yet can ever be considered blessed with fortune” (lines 540-541; page 140). It is a common theme in Greek thought that it’s impossible to evaluate the happiness of a life until it’s over, because fortunes can change at any time. Hecuba and Troy have learned this the hard way.

Closely tied to fortune is the question, debated between Hecuba and Andromache, of whether it is better to live or die in such misfortune. Andromache clearly believes that death is preferable to her present suffering. When informing Hecuba of Polyxena’s death, Andromache says, “She died the way she died. Still, I would say she’s luckier than I am. I still live” (lines 652-653; page 145). Andromache pursues this line of thinking further: “The dead no longer feel the sting of sorrow. But when one falls from fortune to misfortune one’s soul is exiled from its former joy” (lines 659-661; page 146). Andromache is ultimately reflecting upon the vicissitudes of fortune, as her mother did earlier, and she is concluding that it would have been far better to have died earlier, when she was still fortunate.

Hecuba, despite learning the same lesson about fortune, does not agree with Andromache’s conclusion. Hecuba counters her daughter-in-law’s arguments, saying, “Life and death, child, are two different things. One is nothing. There’s some hope in the other” (lines 654-655; page 146). Since fortune can change so drastically for the worse, that is, perhaps it can change for the better, too.

Another point that is debated between mother and daughter is the interpretation of a woman’s social duty in these circumstances. Andromache is highly conscious of the correct performance of her duty, even under straitened circumstances. In her introductory speech, she establishes this awareness when she describes finding her sister Polyxena’s corpse: “I saw her, and I got down from this cart to cover up her corpse, and beat my breast” (lines 648-649; page 145). This performance of ritual mourning is part of the duty of female family members, and it is significant that Andromache preserves the ritual even in a hasty and improvised manner.

Andromache’s preoccupation with the performance of womanly duty reemerges when she reflects upon her downfall. She says, “I made an effort, when I lived with Hector, to practice wise restraint in every way that a woman can” (lines 666-668; page 146). She then enumerates the ways in which she behaved as an ideal wife.

Having established her adherence to the call of womanly duty, Andromache wonders aloud how to behave now that her husband has died and she is going to be the concubine of another: “If I push my beloved Hector to one side and open up my mind to my present spouse then I will seem unfaithful to the dead; but if I hate the man, I’ll be detested by my own master” (lines 684-688; page 146).Andromache is now caught in the clash between her duty as a grieving widow and her duty as a slave. Hecuba advises her daughter to submit to her new position: “Beloved child, don’t dwell on Hector’s fate...Honor your present master; lure the man and win him to your side with pleasing ways” (lines 725-728; page 148). Hecuba argues that Andromache’s duty to Hector is no longer effective, since her husband is dead and cannot benefit. By performing her new duty well, though, Andromache can potentially regain good fortune (and the audience likely knows from other myths that Andromache will indeed live a long and relatively happy life).