Trojan Women

In the midst of the devastation of this play, there is an undercurrent of uncertainty about how and where to assign blame for this tragedy: are the gods responsible, or the actions of mortals? The complicated nature of this theme is introduced in the Prologue, with Poseidon and Athena discussing their involvement in the events of the Trojan War. Though they are practically omnipotent, the gods show that their involvement in Greek and Trojan affairs is not total: they are shocked and outraged by the Greeks’ sacrilegious actions, which went against their will, and they resolve to punish the Greeks. There is therefore a tension in this story between the will of the gods and the will of mortals.

We are reminded of this confusion throughout the play, as characters assign blame to different people and factors. Hecuba constantly brings up Helen’s involvement in this outcome. In a typical refrain, Hecuba cries, “So much misfortune—all that I have been through, and all that lies ahead of me—all this because of just one woman and her marriage” (lines 526-528; page 139). This view of Helen’s ultimate guilt has always been popular—hers is famously “the face that launched a thousand ships”—and goes back to the writings of Homer.

Others take more subtle views of the issue, though. Andromache offers this explanation: “Thanks to malevolent gods, when your child [Paris] escaped Hades, he brought down Troy’s citadel—for the sake of a hateful affair, he destroyed us” (lines 619-621; pages 143-144). This passage removes Helen from the picture almost entirely, and takes a broader view of the circumstances. Not only did the gods wish Troy ill, but the Trojans themselves have a share of the blame for this outcome. Hecuba knew before Paris was born that he was destined to destroy the city. Rather than kill the baby outright, she ordered an old man to expose the child to the elements. The child grew up and reclaimed his place as a Trojan prince, and Paris was the one who took Helen away from her husband Menelaus. This view, unlike that espoused by Hecuba, allows for the agency of divine will and fate in the actions of mortals.

The Chorus also shows some confusion over where to assign culpability. Their assessment of the situation, in the ode that precedes Helen’s episode, delves deep into legend. Having laid out how beloved Troy once was to Zeus, who even took the Trojan prince Ganymede as his lover, the Chorus concludes: “I will no longer blame Zeus. The warm light of white-winged Heméra glanced like a blade on our land’s destruction, on Troy’s dissolution…” (lines 878-871; page 154). Their reproach shifts between gods who have previously shown favor to Troy but have now abandoned it.

This debate comes to a head in the agôn, Helen’s episode. Here, the question boils down to whether Helen is responsible for her own actions, or whether it is more just to blame fate and the gods. Helen convincingly implicates everyone she can, beginning with Hecuba for failing to kill Paris, and the old man who failed to expose the baby. Helen also assigns blame to her Spartan husband, Menelaus, for leaving her alone with Paris, and blames the goddess Aphrodite for making her fall in love with Paris. She concludes, “If what you want is to overpower the gods, then you’re a fool” (lines 995-996; page 159). Helen’s model of culpability thus incorporates the levels of both the gods and mortals, illustrating an interplay between fate and free will and marches toward an inevitable conclusion. Conveniently for Helen, such a model absolves her of any blame, or at least distributes this blame evenly among a large number of factors.

Hecuba’s refutation is fierce: “You shouldn’t try to burnish your own faults by claiming that the goddesses are fools” (lines 1014-1015; page 159). The queen rejects the involvement of the gods in Troy’s downfall, making Helen complicit and an active player in the outcome. Though Hecuba succeeds in persuading Menelaus, there is still a constant awareness that there is an element of divine intervention and fate behind the experiences of the Trojans. Ultimately, then, Trojan Women offers an exploration of the factors behind mortal experiences, but does not give a clear resolution to this question.

Women in ancient Athenian society led heavily-restricted lives. Only men were expected to participate in public life, and the male head of the household was expected to keep the women of his family protected in the home at all times. Though in practice this level of total isolation was likely impossible to achieve, it was certainly the mark of an ideal woman that she never be seen by any man who was not her husband or relative. Within the household, women had an important role in carrying out familial rituals and ensuring the integrity of the home.

This centrality of women within the private sphere helps us to understand the characters in Trojan Women, who generally reflect 5th-century-BC, Athenian values, rather than those of the mythological past. Andromache exemplifies the ideals of feminine behavior in her episode. She describes her behavior as wise (sôphrôn), a trait that was particularly valued in Athenian women. Andromache outlines her habits, saying, “I avoided...the thing that causes a bad reputation [whether or not blame is fixed on women]: when a woman doesn’t stay indoors” (lines 668-671; page 146). However, as she says, “The Achaean army heard about my ways and that is what destroyed me…” (lines 680-681; page 146). Andromache’s downfall comes because she develops a reputation, even though it is a good one, as being known invites misfortune.

Such a restrictive social value seems to have been prevalent in this period of Athenian history.The historian Thucydides reports a famous speech by the great general Pericles, which would have been delivered roughly twenty years before this play’s debut. In it, he offers this advice to the women of Athens: “Great will be your glory in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be hers who is least talked of among the men whether for good or for bad” (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, chapter 45, section 2). Both Pericles’s speech and Andromache’s lament indicate to us that an Athenian woman’s honor rested upon her being entirely unknown outside her own household.

Hecuba plays the role of an idealized matron; she has given birth to many children, has always been loyal to her husband, and as queen of Troy she is essentially a mother figure to the entire city. Older Athenian women were seen as the moral center of the family, and we see a reflection of this with Hecuba dispensing advice to others in Andromache’s episode, seeking what moral justice she can for her people (for example, in Helen’s episode), and leading the other women in the performance of their ritual duties (for example, mourning the slain Astyanax). We also see the limits of the effectiveness of women’s role in society; when Hecuba receives the corpse of her slain grandson, Astyanax, she declares, “I give you these blows to my head and my chest. That is all I can do” (lines 825-826; page 151). Hecuba performs her duties well, but ultimately (as we have seen with Andromache), the successful performance of a woman’s duties cannot save them from the actions of men.

This social context also helps us understand Cassandra’s remarkable characterization. As the princess raves about her impending ‘marriage’ with Agamemnon, she cries, “Since you, O mother, persist in grieving for my dead father—weeping and groaning—and the homeland we loved, I raise the wedding torch myself” (lines 323-326; page 132). Cassandra sees Hecuba performing her duties toward Troy and her family but subverts the demand that her mother perform essentially the opposite duty—namely, perform the rituals of a mother toward her betrothed daughter. Where Cassandra sees a neglect of duty, the audience sees Cassandra demanding a perversion of proper duty. Similarly, Cassandra encourages Hecuba with, “Come dance, O mother; come lead the chorus, come let your footsteps swirl in a circle, in the steps we love most!” (lines 339-341; page 133). We have just seen Hecuba leading the Chorus in a song of lament, and Cassandra’s subversion of proper behavior illustrates how drastically she stands apart from the other women.