Trojan Women

Greek tragedy followed a number of conventions that can help to clarify the stagecraft of this play. By the 5th century BC, Euripides’ time, plays would feature three actors who would share the named speaking roles, and a Chorus, who would generally stay on stage the whole time and punctuate the action with songs and commentary. Actors would often portray more than one character, with the help of costume changes, though the actor who played Hecuba would have been on stage for the entire play. Actors were always men, even (as here) when they were portraying female characters; women never appeared in Greek theater.

Greek tragic plays had a recognizable structure. In the Prologue, a character (usually not a main character) would deliver an address to the audience, establishing the context for the dramatic events, and hinting at some of the play’s major themes. The ensuing action was divided into ‘episodes’ of spoken or chanted dialogue between characters, and choral odes, which were interludes of song and dance performed by the chorus. Odes would generally reflect the developments of the plot, and the chorus could be expected to reflect the feelings of the audience.

Euripides uses the Prologue to establish the tone of the play, and some of its themes. Beginning with a description of the city’s fall, then focusing in on the suffering of the women, then focusing even closer on the suffering of the main character, Hecuba, Euripides’ narrowing scope helps us to appreciate the place of Hecuba and the Trojan women within this larger mythological narrative.

Besides the suffering of the women, perhaps the strongest theme established in the Prologue is that of divine intervention. Though it’s unclear what level of involvement he had in the war, Poseidon tells us that he was on Troy’s side (contrary to the Homeric version of this myth), opposed by his sister Athena. Poseidon is therefore surprised when Athena asks his help in sabotaging the Greeks’ return home. As she describes the destruction she plans for her former allies, she says, “That will teach the Achaeans (Greeks) to revere my shrines, and all the other gods, from now on” (lines 86-87; page 121). Clearly, then, the gods’ loyalties can shift, and they are involved enough in mortal affairs that they can mete out punishment.

This play is suffused with references to events of before and after this play. Indeed, very little action actually happens in the scenes of Trojan Women; rather, this play is a reaction to what has already happened, and an anticipation of what is to come. Euripides can assume that his audience is familiar with the entire mythical cycle surrounding the Trojan War, since the works of Homer dealing with this topic, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were by far the most ancient and celebrated stories in Ancient Greece.

Hecuba’s dialog with Cassandra depends almost entirely upon the audience’s knowledge of Cassandra’s fate. While Hecuba and the Chorus marvel at Cassandra’s inexplicable celebration of her ‘marriage’—she cries out, “Come shout aloud the wedding-hymn, sing out your blessings for the bride!” (lines 342-343; page 133)—the audience realizes that Cassandra knows that she and Agamemnon will die horribly upon their arrival in Greece. Cassandra does regain her senses enough to declare, “I will kill him” (line 368; page 134), and, “As for me, my naked corpse, cast into a ravine, will ride swollen rills of snowmelt…” (lines 471-472; page 137). We know that Cassandra will not in fact kill Agamemnon, but his wife, Clytemnestra, will murder both him and Cassandra. Rather than fearing her fate or mourning her homeland, then, Cassandra relishes the knowledge that Agamemnon will receive a fitting punishment. While Hecuba and the Chorus are confused, the audience understands the entirety of Cassandra’s chilling prophecy.