Trojan Women

Andromache is a Trojan princess, daughter-in-law of Hecuba, widow of the Trojan hero Hector, and mother of the young boy Astyanax. Both in mythology and in this play, Andromache is an ideal woman, loyal to her husband, devoted to her son, and mindful of her duties.

When we meet Andromache, carried on stage in a wagon full of Trojan spoils, she is despondent at the destruction of Troy and longing for death. She envies her sister-in-law, Polyxena, who was killed by the Greeks. Despite her pain, Andromache still performs her duties. She improvises a rudimentary funeral ritual for Polyxena, and she contemplates resisting her impending sex slavery out of loyalty to her dead husband, Hector. Andromache’s sympathetic characterization is most clearly expressed through her relationship with her son Astyanax, who is executed by the Greeks off stage. As she bids a tearful farewell to the child, she must refrain from cursing the Greeks in order to secure a proper burial for her son, and dutifully restrains herself. We last hear of Andromache being led to the Greek ships, still taking steps to ensure that Astyanax’s body is treated properly.

Helen is a Spartan princess, the daughter of Zeus, and the most beautiful woman in the world. Before the war, Helen was married to the Spartan king Menelaus; when the Trojan prince Paris came to visit, Helen left her husband and fled to Troy with Paris. This act led the Greeks to invade Troy, sparking the ten-year Trojan War that has just ended. Now, Paris is dead, and Helen has been recaptured by the Greeks. Menelaus wishes to put her to death, but Helen pleads her innocence and even victimhood.

Helen is portrayed here as deceitful and cunning, bending logic to get her way and using her beauty to help win Menelaus back. Hecuba’s rebuttal to Helen illustrates all the ways in which Helen has failed in her duties, showing shifting loyalties between the Greeks and the Trojans and allowing lust and fortune to direct her actions, rather than duty or wisdom.

Cassandra is a Trojan princess, the daughter of Hecuba. We know from mythology (which would have been familiar to Euripides’ audience) that the god Apollo once attempted to seduce Cassandra by giving her the gift of prophecy. When she refused the god, he cursed her so that her prophecies would never be believed. This has resulted in Cassandra being seen by the other Trojans as a raving madwoman, though she always speaks the truth.

When we meet Cassandra in this play, she is behaving erratically and attempting to celebrate her ‘wedding’ to the Greek leader Agamemnon, who is taking her as his concubine. Cassandra explains that she and Agamemnon will die violently on their return to Greece, which she sees as a suitable vengeance. Though she only causes pain and confusion to Hecuba and the Chorus, Cassandra’s speech is meaningful to the audience, who know from mythology that she’s speaking the truth. Cassandra can therefore be seen as communicating more with the audience than with the other characters on stage.

The Chorus is made up of Trojan women of indeterminate age; sometimes they speak as matrons, and sometimes as young women. They are the survivors of Troy’s destruction, and they are waiting with Hecuba for their imminent enslavement. The role of the Chorus in Greek tragedy is generally as a stand-in for the audience, reacting to events as we are expected to react. They are therefore not generally active players in the play’s scenes, but more like commentators. The Chorus also performs odes, interludes of song and dance that break up the spoken dialogue of each episode. These odes do not fit into the narrative of the play necessarily, but they provide context to the events and help to summarize the characters’ thoughts and feelings to this point. The Chorus’ dialogue (as opposed to songs) would have been spoken by one Chorus Leader, rather than the entire group.

Talthybius is a Greek messenger who we learn has met Hecuba before, since he used to bring messages to the Trojans during the war. Talthybius is the only character who regularly enters and exits, often bearing news or instructions that drive the play’s action. Despite being a Greek, Talthybius shows sympathy for the Trojans, and occasionally expresses a wish that someone else would carry out his grim tasks. The other characters generally ignore Talthybius’ expressions of sympathy.