1 EURIPIDES' TROJAN WOMEN PREFACE, TRANSLATION, and ...

deserves a crown for saving Greece from pillage and destruction. Hecuba refutes all these
arguments saying that Helen left because of own lust for wealth and power, to say
nothing of desire for Paris. Menelaus insists on taking Helen on his own ship. Hecuba
says bitterly that once one has been a lover, one is always a lover. She and the Chorus
curse Helen.
The funeral of Astyanax follows, and the women contribute what they can to his burial.
Hecuba says she thinks the vanities of a funeral are only for the living, not the dead.
What is left of Troy is set on fire. Hecuba tries to kill herself in the flames, but is dragged
back to the other women. The women mourn their losses for the last time and go to the
Greek ships.
Women of Troy: Interpretation
This is the greatest anti-war play ever written. It shows the suffering of women and
children after every war. It has been used many times to protest against war and to act as
a warning for audiences who see it. It can also be a consolation for those who are
suffering from war, because in it they see that over the ages others too have suffered.
This play has something for everyone: gods appear at the beginning; soldiers collect their
loot after a war; women suffer the worst they can suffer: the loss of their city, their men,
and their children; there is a comic interlude when a femme fatale meets her ex-husband
whom she deserted; and then darkness again, before the play ends with a faint ray of hope
in the human spirit.
Euripides was called the most tragic of the Greek tragedians, and this is the most tragic of
his plays. Greece had had its glorious victories in the Persian Wars (490 BC and 480 BC),
but in its Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), in which Greek fought Greek, there was
much suffering and it was on this that Euripides concentrated in Women of Troy.
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