Trojan Women by Euripides
Korede Teriba
It was the aftermath of a ten year war. It was the time of plunder and plunder sharing. Troy had been invaded, it’s men slaughtered, it’s maidens’ chastity breached, and it’s women gathered to be shared among the victors – as spoils of war. Women, the central character of Euripides’ influential work, gather to lament their loss; loss of husbands and sons. They gather to lament the fall of Troy and their forced migration with new husbands, to strange lands. How shall these women sing their songs of joy in a strange land? This is the opening picture of Euripides’ Trojan women.
It is a play centered on the devastating aftermaths of war. Euripides choses to examine these aftermaths – loss and laments on women. Furthermore, it’s a dissection of the horrors of conflict on the human psyche. Readers are introduced to four women; Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache, and Helen who are left to lament their new realities as they wait to be given out to the victors of war.
Hecuba, bitter, and grieved, questions the gods as she believes they abandoned them at their time of need. She’s further grieved, sighting her daughter, Cassandra, a seer, exhibiting insanity. Andromache battles the reality of marriage to her husband’s murderer. Helen, the cause of the war, escapes the harsh realities of war’s aftermath through manipulation. She also escapes Menelaus’ wrath – as she’s his mistress who eloped with Paris – pleading her innocence and blaming the goddess, Aphrodite. Her manipulative pleas and feminine charm softens his wrath, and she returns with him to Sparta – as his wife.
Andromache’s son, Astyanax, the seed of hope, is brutally murdered to weaken the royal bloodline so there would be no male to take vengeance. As the play ends, Troy is razed – and the women are shipped to Greece to serve as slaves and wives to their new men.
I find Trojan women tragic. To me, the play not only exposes the horrors of war but also examines the aftermath. Oftentimes, victims of war relieve their experiences mentally. Some can’t live with the loss accompanying war, so they live a life of lament – even when the war is over.
Additionally, the play depicts the human solidarity that accompanies disastrous events. The women gather to comfort one another in their crises and to lessen the debilitating effects of the war on their psyche. In tragic times, humans tend to need each other and be support systems to one another. Euripides successfully depicts this in his play.
Also, the play depicts the Greek culture of “winner takes all” in war. The allied forces totally destroy Troy and carry off their women as spoils. Astyanax, the war victims’ hope of restoration is murdered. The brutal killing of this baby seals their fate as slaves forever in foreign lands. I believe the killing of males and sparing of females, in war, in ancient times, is strategic in totally destroying threats to the victors’ victory. This is foregrounded with the killing of the baby.
Lastly, I believe the story has unveiled the brutal effects of war on women. Though they’re not directly involved in it, they’re affected.
The play is an excellent one. Though ancient, it still speaks to our contemporary society. It reflects the absurdities of human nature. Euripides, one the greatest playwrights of his time, successfully captures the tragedy of war.
Euripides was one of the influential playwrights of his time. He lived and wrote at a time of civil strife and intense political crises. This is clearly evident in his plays. His plays were often tragic. Clifton Fadiman, in his, A New Lifetime Reading Plan, (see Clifton Fadiman and John S. Major’s A New Lifetime Reading Plan, pg. 15) wrote this of him: “As you read Euripides, see whether you can understand why Aristotle called him the most tragic of the poets.” This assertion is a testament to Euripides’ skill at crafting tragedies.