Euripides’ Trojan Women: The Fall of Troy in Greek Tragedy

In “Trojan Women”, the Athenian playwright Euripides highlights an aspect of the Trojan War neglected by Christopher Nolan in “The Odyssey”: the true horror of Troy’s capture and destruction. In this episode, Emily and Cam break down Euripides’ play. Produced at Athens mere months after the Athenians captured Melos (where the Athenians killed all of the men and enslaved the city’s women and children), Euripides’ play offers a powerful and moving depiction of war’s impact on its victims by exploring the suffering and heroism of three Trojan women: Hecuba, Cassandra, and Andromache.

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Links to previous episodes mentioned in this show:

• Our episode about Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey.
• Our episode about Sophocles’ Philoctetes.

Watch Michael Cacoyannis’ film version of the Trojan Women on Daily Motion.

Cover image adapted from a photo of George Romney’s “Lady Emma Hamilton as Cassandra”, taken by Jan Arkesteijn (Wikimedia Commons).

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00:10 - Introduction

02:16 - Content Warning!

02:53 - Euripides’ Trojan Women

• 02:56 - Euripides and his work
• 06:49 - The Play’s Context: the Peloponnesian War and the sack of Melos

11:12 - Plot Synopsis

• 11:14 - Poseidon and Athena hatch a scheme
• 13:16 - Talthybius, Hecuba, and the Allotment of the Captives to Agamemnon, Neoptolemus, and Odysseus
• 15:09 - Cassandra
• 16:05 - Andromache
• 17:16 - The agon: Menelaus, Helen, and Hecuba
• 21:57 - The funeral of Astyanax and the death of Troy

23:00 - War and Suffering: Hecuba and Talthybius

• 23:26 - Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey and Euripides’ Trojan Women: a difference in perspective
• 25:09 - The Pain of Hecuba, Cassandra, and Andromache (and a digression on Odysseus)
• 29:35 - Hecuba: Leadership and Resilience
• 33:11 - The Empathy of Talthybius

39:23 - Agency and Humanity

• 39:46 - The women as heroes
• 39:54 - Cassadra’s vengeance
• 40:42 - Andromache, Neoptolemus, and Astyanax
• 41:57 - Hecuba
• 43:04 - Helen and Talthybius

45:04 - Fortune is Fickle

• 45:51 - Greek literature and the instability of fortune
• 48:00 - Agency again: fate and choice

50:57 - The Victors and their Comeuppance

• 51:20 - Nolan’s view on war and society
• 52:12 - Euripides and the wrath of the gods
• 54:54 - Digression: Michael Cacoyannis’ “Trojan Women”, featuring Irene Papas

55:53 - Athens and the Trojan Women

• 56:53 - Empathy for the victims of warfare
• 57:32 - Euripides as Cassandra?

59:11 – Final Thoughts and Wrap-up