Trojan Women
Trojan Women (Trōadğs). 1. Greek tragedy by Euripides. It was produced in 415 BC, shortly after the capture of Melos by the Athenians, who slaughtered its male inhabitants and enslaved its women and children. One of the most poignant of Euripidean dramas, it presents not so much a narrative as a tragic situation: the condition of the Trojan women when their men-folk have been killed and they are at the mercy of their captors. Grieving and anxious they await their fate. Talthybius, the herald, announces that they are to be distributed among the victors. The Trojan queen Hecuba is to become the possession of the hated Odysseus; her daughter Cassandra has been allotted to Agamemnon, and it is revealed that her other daughter Polyxena has been slaughtered on the tomb of Achilles. The tragic figure of Cassandra appears; being a prophetess she foretells some of the disasters which will come upon the conquerors. Andromachē enters with her small son Astyanax; she is to be the prize of Neoptolemus. Talthybius returns to carry off Astyanax whose death has been ordered by the Greeks. The meeting of Menelaus and Helen follows; he is determined to destroy her, and Hecuba encourages his anger. But Helen pleads her cause, and when Helen and Menelaus depart their reconciliation has been foreshadowed. Talthybius appears once more with the broken body of Astyanax, and Hecuba prepares the burial. Finally Troy is set on fire and its towers collapse as the women leave for captivity.
2. Roman tragedy by Seneca
