Since I do not have access to the original text of “The Trojan Women,” the following summary is based on an English translation by M. Hadas and J. McLean in an anthology entitled “Greek Drama.”
The translators did a good job. However, no translation can be perfectly faithful to the original. For example, Hecuba compares Fortune to a whirling dervish, a concept with which Euripides could hardly have been acquainted.
Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea, addresses the audience at the beginning of the drama. He points out that the goddesses Hera and Athena were hostile to the city of Troy. Through their agency, Troy lies in ruins. Though Poseidon befriended the Trojans, he was powerless to help them.
In particular, Poseidon draws our attention to surviving Trojan women who are in a tent, waiting to learn their fate. Among them is Helen, who is rightly regarded as a captive, even though she is a Laconian Greek.
Hecuba, the wife of the late king Priam, is especially unhappy. She has lost all her children except Cassandra.
Athena then enters. She is angry with the Greeks because they desecrated her temples when they sacked Troy. She wants the Greeks to suffer harm as they sail home from Troy. Zeus has agreed to send a hurricane with an abundance of rain and hail. She asks Poseidon to help out by disturbing the waters. Poseidon heartily agrees to cooperate.
After Athena and Poseidon leave, the spotlight focuses on Hecuba. She mourns over the destruction of her country. She blames Helen, the runaway wife of Menelaus, for occasioning the Greek expedition against Troy and causing the death of her husband Priam. She expects that slavery will henceforth be her lot.
The chorus enters. It consists of captive Trojan women, both young and old. Hecuba and the chorus speculate on what might happen to them. The Greeks are making an allotment which will decide their fate. No one wants to be given to Menelaus, for then they will have to go to Sparta, the cursed abode of Helen. They would rather go to Thessaly or Athens.
Talthybius, the Greek herald, enters and announces that the assignments have been made. Hecuba asks about her daughters Cassandra and Polyxena. Talthybius informs her that Agamemnon has taken Cassandra as his concubine, but he is vague on the fate of Polyxena. He tells Hecuba that Polyxena will serve at the tomb of Achilles. When Hecuba questions him further, Talthybius tells her that the troubles of Polyxena are over.
Hecuba then asks what will happen to Andromache, the wife of the valiant Hector, who was slain by Achilles. She learns that Andromache will become the wife of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus.
Talthybius has some especially bad news for Hecuba. She will become the servant of Odysseus, the most treacherous of the Greeks.
Cassandra then enters the scene with a blazing torch. She is a prophetess of Apollo who usually prophesies in a state of frenzy. She is holding the torch aloft for her own wedding to Agamemnon because her mother is too busy mourning for Priam.
Cassandra welcomes her impending marriage because it will cause the death of Agamemnon, followed by a matricide and the ruin of the house of Atreus. Cassandra also prophesies that she herself will be killed.
Talthybius is disgusted with the words of Cassandra. He wonders why Agamemnon chose such a crazy bride. (According to Greek mythology, Cassandra always prophesied the truth, but no one ever took her prophecies seriously.)
Before leaving, Talthybius tells Hecuba to get ready to go to the ship of Odysseus. He assures her that she will be the servant of a virtuous woman.
Cassandra replies that Hecuba will die here by the ruins of Troy. As she leaves, she comforts Hecuba by pointing out that through her marriage she will destroy the house of Atreus.
While Hecuba is lamenting and the chorus is reminiscing on the fall of Troy, Andromache enters with her young son Astyanax. Conversing with Hecuba, Andromache informs Hecuba concerning the fate of Polyxena. She was slain at the tomb of Achilles.
Andromache believes that the lot of Polyxena is better than her own. Because Andromache had been a faithful wife to Hector, Neoptolemus had learned of her good reputation andwanted her; so now she will be compelled to marry her enemy.
As the two women were conversing, Talthybius enters. He offers embarrassed apologies and hesitatingly explains that Odysseus has persuaded the Greeks to kill Astyanax so that he won’t be able to take vengeance on the Greeks when he grows up. He advises her not to curse the Greeks for their action. If Andromache expresses excessive hostility, the Greeks might not allow the Trojan women to bury the boy.
In spite of the warning, Andromache curses the Greeks. After Andromache has given her child a parting embrace, Talthybius leads him away.
After a few comments by the chorus, Menelaus enters. He says that he did not really come to Troy to reclaim his wife. Rather, he wanted to take vengeance on the man who seduced her. The Greeks have decided to let Menelaus do whatever he wants with Helen. He is planning to take her to Greece and allow the relatives of those who died at Troy to take vengeance upon her.
Hecuba commends Menelaus for wanting to kill Helen, but he warns him not to look at her, since her sight will surely captivate him.
Helen enters and asks permission to defend herself. Menelaus does not like the idea, but Hecuba wants to hear her arguments and answer them. So Menelaus consents.
Helen blames Hecuba for all that has happened. She gave birth to Paris, and she did not kill him, even though she knew that he was destined to cause the destruction of his homeland.
In addition, Helen claims that she is actually the savior of Greece. Paris had been the judge of a beauty contest between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Each of the three goddesses bribed the judge by promising to reward him if he gave her the prize. Hera promised to make him the ruler of Europe and Asia. Athena promised to make him a mighty commander who would conquer Greece. Aphrodite described Helen’s beauty and promised Paris that Helen would be his wife. Paris decided in favor of Aphrodite, so he married Helen instead of conquering or ruling over Greece. In this way, her beauty saved Greece from servitude to a foreign power.
Moreover, Helen exculpates herself on the grounds that the goddess Aphrodite accompanied Paris when he came to Sparta, and it was Aphrodite who was responsible for all that happened.
Finally, when Aphrodite no longer interfered in her affairs after the death of Paris, she tried unsuccessfully to escape from Troy and return to the Greek camp. She was forced to marry Deiphobus, another son of Priam, against her will.
In response, Hecuba says she did not believe what Helen said about Hera and Athena. Argos was especially dear to Hera, and Athens was the favorite of Athena. Neither goddess would ever willingly allow a foreigner to rule over her favorite city.
Moreover, Hecuba asserts that it was not Aphrodite, but her own lewdness that caused her to come to Troy with Paris. Helen was also influenced by the fact that the court of Troy was more luxurious that that of Sparta.
During the ten-year siege, Helen seemed to favor whichever side happened to be winning. Instead of trying to escape, Helen consistently refused to leave Troy and go to the Greek camp, even though Hecuba often urged her to do so. Hecuba had even promised to help her get away secretly.
Hecuba and the leader of the chorus urge Menelaus to kill Helen, while Helen pleads for her life. Menelaus promises that Helen will get what she deserves when she reaches Argos.
After Menelaus and Helen leave, the chorus mourns its impending deportation. They hope that the holy hands of Zeus might hurl his thunderbolt at the ship of Menelaus when he is halfway across the Aegean. They are not fooled by his promise to punish Helen.
Talthybius then comes with the body of Astyanax. He has washed it in the Scamander River, and promises to help her bury the child. At Andromache’s request, Neoptolemus has given them the shield of Hector to use as a coffin for the boy. (Achilles, the father of Neoptolemus, had obtained the shield when he defeated and killed Hector in battle. Neoptolemus had inherited the shield when Achilles died.)
The Trojan women have one last grief to bear before they are led away to the Greek ships. Before their eyes, the Greeks set fire to the city of Troy.
We have no way of determining how accurately this drama reflects historical events. The destruction of Troy has been verified archeologically, but the details belong to the realm of legend.
Unfortunately, similar scenes took place repeatedly in ancient times. When an army conquered a city, there was no attempt to minimize the suffering of civilians, and the fate of survivors was often harsh.
I am sure that you do not believe that Hecuba died by the ruins of Troy, because no one ever believed the prophecies of Cassandra. Nevertheless, according to Homer, neither Hecuba nor anyone else reached Ithaca with Odysseus.
Reference:
“Greek Drama”; Moses Hadas, editor.
