With this particular piece, Euripides demonstrates how war causes a person to lose their morals, alienates them, and makes them act more like animals. She changes from a cunning woman to a vengeful man, then to a bitch.
The Trojan women, who are all one woman, are given a lot of ''room''. The woman who has appeared in numerous wars all around the world. It honors women and demonstrates their genuine worth. It doesn't paint them as helpless, foolish self-inflicted victims.
It's intriguing that the poet chose a queen to represent the agony of war—a woman who had everything and then suddenly had nothing.
I should also mention that it is maybe the only book in which the characters pursue justice on their own, without the help of a deity. It has to do with moral equity.

One of the most recent, considering how much the present resembles it as you read more of it.

ha ha take that polymestor! bet you didn't see that coming

I'll show myself out

Another Greek tragedy where a daughter has to be sacrificed. This time we've got Hecuba who was once the queen of Troy but now she's a lowly slave. She finds out her daughter, Polyxena, is to be sacrificed and she's not too happy about it but the deed is done. She then finds out that her son Polydorus has been killed. He was staying with Polymester but that guy didn't trust Polydorus so he killed him.
Hecuba decides Polymester needs to be punished for this so she lures him to visit along with his two sons. She, along with the Trojan women, kills the sons and blinds Polymester. Agamemnon decides this was justified after all.
This one was alright but there are other plays by Euripides that I've enjoyed more so I'll give this a C-.

Definitely not as dramatic as Medea but still a freaking good play.

I loved a lot of Hecuba's lines in this and how surprisingly feminist it was for the time.

In my opinion better than the Iliad and a better writer than Sophocles if you've never read Greek Tragedy go with him

Fan fiction bookending The Illiad and presaging The Oresteia (much like Rogue One). The Greek playwrights show remarkable empathy for the Trojans but then why offend half the gods.

lmao i forgot she turns into a dog. welp.
i didnt like this one that much. i just couldnt get into it. usually i can knock these plays out in one sitting and it takes me like an hour but this one took several days bc i would read a few pages then get bored and ditch it. this one was super boring. and also sad. (ik theyre tragedies theyre supposed to be sad whatever)

notes:
- "bride and ghost bride, virgin and virgin's ghost" is such a BAR
- Lmaoooo an Ancient Greek saying YO thats so funny

A really exciting opening with the ghost of Polydorus hovering over the scene and foretelling the terrible events that will happen to Hecuba (the wife of Priam): that she will both find his body (he is her son, she sent him away in order to save him, but didn’t realize the plan failed) and have to deal with the human sacrifice of one of her few remaining daughters, Polyxena (which is portrayed as Polyxena accepting her fate as better than slavery, which may not be the best way to write from the perspective of a woman who is being ritually murdered). Agamemnon comes to Hecuba’s defense over the murder of Polydorus and ends up helping her get revenge. Hecuba herself is an extraordinary heroine.

I read the William Arrowsmith translation in the beautiful hardcover four volume The Complete Greek Tragedies edited by David Grene and Richard Lattimore.

[ octobre 2024 ]

the saddest play i have read so far. son impuissance m'a tellement touché, it's like things continuously happen to her and she can't do anything about it because of this bigger-than-herself institution that you HAVE to respect

i find it interesting how (and this is only the third play i've read from euripides) it focuses on hecuba, a non-Greek character --> est-ce qu'il nous fait une lettres persanes? je sais pas mais j'arrête pas d'y penser avec medea aussi genre is he trying to tell us something about Greek society....... food for thought

"If I could, I’d grow tongues in my arms and hands // and hair, in the soles of my feet— a thousand tongues // all talking, all crying together, in one voice clinging //
to your knees, begging you, imploring you" (837ff)

A source text for The Burnt City by Punchdrunk

Short but brutal. Feels like there could have been another act? New to Greek tragedies, feels almost like a minimalist war-based form of Shakespeare.

Although not clear at first, this play is centred around the concept of guest-friendship and explores not only how important it is to the Greeks but also how heinous a crime it is to break it.

For even Agamemnon, who is generally not that good of a guy all things considered, denounces and stands off to the side when he learns that an ally of his has broken the guest-friendship with an enemy of his.

Such a display of justice coming from him really says something about how the concept was received at the time.

Scurtă și brutală.
[slujitoarea despre Hecuba] ”Stăpâna mea nespus de încercată, mult mai năpăstuită decât pot să spun, tu ești pierdută, nu mai ești nimic, deși încă privești lumina, fără copii, fără bărbat, fără cetate, tu cea căzută în ruină !”