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A powerful examination of the stupidity of war and its horrifying effects on the innocent, especially women, that simply begs for an operatic adaptation composed by Puccini.
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This is a powerful read and I am awed that this exists as we get to a peek into the experience of the women of Troy. I highly recommend reading along with The Lit Life podcast. Angelina, Thomas, and Cindy really expound on this. Also provides more insight into The Iliad and The Odyssey which I have also been reading.
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I think it's important to realize that the Iliad is a complete genocide, that is, an event not many see as the complete slaughter of a people. Where the Greeks threw babies into fires, kicked pregnant women from the walls of Troy, and Achilles desecrates bodies and beheads Trojan children.
Yet, surprisingly, no men or divines take issue with any of this.
The Women of Troy takes place after Troy is taken, and is not so much a story as it is the first serious anti-war piece. During the Peloponnesian War the Athenians massacred a city because the people wished to remain neutral, and in protest Euripides wrote a play dealing with the horrors the Trojans faced after the Greeks won the war.
Ajax the lessor had just raped Cassandra in Athena's temple, and none of the Greeks said or did anything about it, turning Athena against the Greeks, winning Poseidon over to her new fight at the beginning of the drama. The consequences of this becomes far more profound as we enter into Homer's Odyssey. The rest of the play is devoted to the women of Troy and the hideous fate they suffer, with Hecabe, the widow of Priam, having center focus. Their treatment is grotesque, and their lamentations garner little reprieve in a world where violence comes as naturally as the will of the Gods.
Yet, surprisingly, no men or divines take issue with any of this.
The Women of Troy takes place after Troy is taken, and is not so much a story as it is the first serious anti-war piece. During the Peloponnesian War the Athenians massacred a city because the people wished to remain neutral, and in protest Euripides wrote a play dealing with the horrors the Trojans faced after the Greeks won the war.
Ajax the lessor had just raped Cassandra in Athena's temple, and none of the Greeks said or did anything about it, turning Athena against the Greeks, winning Poseidon over to her new fight at the beginning of the drama. The consequences of this becomes far more profound as we enter into Homer's Odyssey. The rest of the play is devoted to the women of Troy and the hideous fate they suffer, with Hecabe, the widow of Priam, having center focus. Their treatment is grotesque, and their lamentations garner little reprieve in a world where violence comes as naturally as the will of the Gods.
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Absolutamente rendida a estas tragédias gregas.
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Perhaps the most oppressively lugubrious of the Greek dramas, Euripides’ Trojan Women is painted with unremitting strokes of horror and dread. Troy has fallen; neither its ancient, unassailable walls, nor even the mighty arm of Hector could save the most innocent and vulnerable of its people from the brutality now being visited upon them. Priam, the wise old king, is dead; Hector, Ilium’s most valiant defender, is dead; Paris is dead. The men of the city have been massacred, and it is now the lot of the women to be apportioned to the victors as trophies of war. Everything they know, and everyone they love, has been turned to ashes; now they will be carried off in binds to alien lands, where they will live out the remainder of their days as slaves and concubines, in bitter grief and travail.
Hecuba, wife of Priam and mother of Hector, Paris, Polyxena, Cassandra, and many others, is a broken woman. With Helen, Cassandra, and her daughter-in-law Andromache, she languishes outside the Greek encampment, where an assembly of leering warriors will decide to whom she and her companions in despondency now belong. Throughout the play, the Greek messenger Talthybius appears to deliver one crushing blow after another. First, he subtly apprises Hecuba of Polyxena’s fate, which is later confirmed in its grisly details by Andromache: her daughter was slaughtered as a sacrifice over the tomb of Achilles, and her blood poured out as libation. Next, the women learn the news they’ve been dreading: to which of their ravishers they will now become property. Andromache, the wife of Hector, will become wife to Neoptolemus, the son of the man who slew him. Cassandra, a consecrated virgin and half-crazed prophetess of Apollo, having already been raped in the temple of Athena by Ajax the Lesser, is now assigned to Agamemnon; and in a dark delirium she exalts to her mother in her “good fortune” to become the “wife” of a king. Helen, whose beauty set this tragedy in motion, will be returned to her husband Menelaus, who vows, under Hecuba’s encouragement, to put her to death upon their return to Sparta. But Hecuba thinks her own fate the most pitiful: she will become the slave of the conniving Odysseus, whose machinations brought Troy to its knees.
Hecuba’s only meager ray of hope takes the form of her little grandson, Astyanax, the son of Hector and Andromache. Perhaps it is the will of the gods that the boy will live to redeem his city and vindicate its hallowed dead. But then comes the final missive of Talthybius, and all hope is vanquished: the treacherous Odysseus has convinced the assembly that the boy is too dangerous to be spared. He will be thrown from the high walls of Troy; unfit to live precisely because his father had performed such heroics to protect him.
Cradling the body of Astyanax on the shield of Hector, Hecuba delivers one of the play’s many bone-chilling lines:
“Poor boy, how horribly your own home’s walls,
the ramparts of Apollo, crushed your head
and ripped the curls your mother doted on;
She often used to kiss you there—where blood
laughs out between the broken bits of skull.”
In the end, the Argives, though momentarily victorious, will not be relieved of their own sorrows. Athena and Poseidon, outraged by the sacrilegious carnage, have their own scores to settle.
The Trojan Women fascinates not only with its gruesome subject matter, but also with the context in which it was first performed. In 415 BC, though a temporary truce was in place, Athens was still embroiled in a grueling war with Sparta and its Peloponnesian allies; a war that it would ultimately lose, terminating with its own sacking. Just a few months before the first performance, the Athenians had utterly destroyed the tiny island state of Melos, butchering the men and enslaving the women and children. The Melians had maintained their neutrality in the war, and they posed no conceivable threat to the Athenian Empire; but their refusal to enlist themselves in the Athenian cause drew murderous wrath upon them. Euripides could have had the fate of Melos in mind when he placed this admonishment in the mouth of Hecuba before an audience of Athenian citizen-soldiers, virtually all of whom would have supported the atrocity and some of whom may have even participated in it:
“O, Greeks! Your weapons had more force than sense:
why did you feel afraid of this young boy?
Strange and unnatural killing. Did you fear
he’d one day raise up fallen Troy? You’re worthless!
We were losing even then, when Hector
stood strong against your hundred thousand spears.”
Like the Trojans, the Athenians trusted in the strength of their walls, unable to conceive that their own beloved city might befall the same fate they had inflicted on so many others. Like the wrathful Greek army, their own city was governed by a raucous assembly, which could be manipulated by Odyssean demagogues into endorsing cruel, unreasonable, and self-destructive measures.
It may be fitting that during the same year, the Athenian assembly approved the ill-fated Sicilian expedition: a terminal, hubristic miscalculation that would ultimately spell their own downfall.
Hecuba, wife of Priam and mother of Hector, Paris, Polyxena, Cassandra, and many others, is a broken woman. With Helen, Cassandra, and her daughter-in-law Andromache, she languishes outside the Greek encampment, where an assembly of leering warriors will decide to whom she and her companions in despondency now belong. Throughout the play, the Greek messenger Talthybius appears to deliver one crushing blow after another. First, he subtly apprises Hecuba of Polyxena’s fate, which is later confirmed in its grisly details by Andromache: her daughter was slaughtered as a sacrifice over the tomb of Achilles, and her blood poured out as libation. Next, the women learn the news they’ve been dreading: to which of their ravishers they will now become property. Andromache, the wife of Hector, will become wife to Neoptolemus, the son of the man who slew him. Cassandra, a consecrated virgin and half-crazed prophetess of Apollo, having already been raped in the temple of Athena by Ajax the Lesser, is now assigned to Agamemnon; and in a dark delirium she exalts to her mother in her “good fortune” to become the “wife” of a king. Helen, whose beauty set this tragedy in motion, will be returned to her husband Menelaus, who vows, under Hecuba’s encouragement, to put her to death upon their return to Sparta. But Hecuba thinks her own fate the most pitiful: she will become the slave of the conniving Odysseus, whose machinations brought Troy to its knees.
Hecuba’s only meager ray of hope takes the form of her little grandson, Astyanax, the son of Hector and Andromache. Perhaps it is the will of the gods that the boy will live to redeem his city and vindicate its hallowed dead. But then comes the final missive of Talthybius, and all hope is vanquished: the treacherous Odysseus has convinced the assembly that the boy is too dangerous to be spared. He will be thrown from the high walls of Troy; unfit to live precisely because his father had performed such heroics to protect him.
Cradling the body of Astyanax on the shield of Hector, Hecuba delivers one of the play’s many bone-chilling lines:
“Poor boy, how horribly your own home’s walls,
the ramparts of Apollo, crushed your head
and ripped the curls your mother doted on;
She often used to kiss you there—where blood
laughs out between the broken bits of skull.”
In the end, the Argives, though momentarily victorious, will not be relieved of their own sorrows. Athena and Poseidon, outraged by the sacrilegious carnage, have their own scores to settle.
The Trojan Women fascinates not only with its gruesome subject matter, but also with the context in which it was first performed. In 415 BC, though a temporary truce was in place, Athens was still embroiled in a grueling war with Sparta and its Peloponnesian allies; a war that it would ultimately lose, terminating with its own sacking. Just a few months before the first performance, the Athenians had utterly destroyed the tiny island state of Melos, butchering the men and enslaving the women and children. The Melians had maintained their neutrality in the war, and they posed no conceivable threat to the Athenian Empire; but their refusal to enlist themselves in the Athenian cause drew murderous wrath upon them. Euripides could have had the fate of Melos in mind when he placed this admonishment in the mouth of Hecuba before an audience of Athenian citizen-soldiers, virtually all of whom would have supported the atrocity and some of whom may have even participated in it:
“O, Greeks! Your weapons had more force than sense:
why did you feel afraid of this young boy?
Strange and unnatural killing. Did you fear
he’d one day raise up fallen Troy? You’re worthless!
We were losing even then, when Hector
stood strong against your hundred thousand spears.”
Like the Trojans, the Athenians trusted in the strength of their walls, unable to conceive that their own beloved city might befall the same fate they had inflicted on so many others. Like the wrathful Greek army, their own city was governed by a raucous assembly, which could be manipulated by Odyssean demagogues into endorsing cruel, unreasonable, and self-destructive measures.
It may be fitting that during the same year, the Athenian assembly approved the ill-fated Sicilian expedition: a terminal, hubristic miscalculation that would ultimately spell their own downfall.
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"As Troianas" fala-nos da guerra de Tróia.
Mas apesar disto conta-nos mais particularmente a história das troianas (cativas dos gregos): Cassandra, Andrómaca, Policena e Hécuba.
Ao mesmo tempo que vemos a destruição de Tróia, ficamos a conhecer o destino destas 4 mulheres, que sendo elas esposas de grades guerreiros, acabam por tornar-se escravas e cativas dos gregos. Cada uma com a sua histórias, com as suas catástrofes, mas todas com o mesmo destino, o de esquecerem os seus maridos e servirem até à morte o seu senhor.
Está é uma tragédia que arranca de nós várias emoções, desde despreso pelos gregos, por tudo aquilo que faziam, a nojo, pelas situações de violações, e também nos leva a um estado de grande emoção (que no meu caso me fez chorar), quando Ulisses decide que o filho de Andrómaca e Héctor não deve viver e então ele é arrancado dos braços da mãe e atirado da torre do castelo.
Este último evento foi talvez o que mais me arrepiou e emocionou, o desespero de Andrómaca, que já tinha ficado viúva, ver-se obrigada a "dar" o seu filho, pois o senhor mandava e a vê-lo morrer nas mãos dos maiores inimigos de seu pai.
Apesar destes momentos, ficamos a conhecer outras situações em que provavelmente tenhamos vontade de arrancar os cabelos a alguém. A forma como mulheres e crianças eram tratadas, se não fossem parte da realeza, ou dos deuses. A forma inumana com que tratavam os "Traidores".
Ao longo de todo o livro vai-nos sendo apresentado diversos pontos de vista.
Todo o livro está bem estruturado, pelo menos na minha opinião. Na introdução ficamos a saber o porquê deste ser o destino destas mulheres. No desenvolvimento são nos apresentados os argumentos para este destino e o próprio destino de cada uma, com descrições necessárias para compreender a história. Na conclusão, eu pessoalmente fiquei um pouco confusa, mas encontramos um diálogo entre Hécuba e Menelao em que esta tenta convencê-lo a castigar Helena.
É realmente um bom livro, com algumas lacunas, isto talvez por não conhecer a fundo a história de Ulisses e não ter lido Ilíada (acredito que provavelmente se tivesse lido este livro antes teria outra perspectiva da história).
Foi uma boa leitura apesar de ter sido quase "obrigada" a lê-lo já que as escolhas não eram as mais simpáticas e as outras obras que faziam parte da lista de obras a apresentar não me chamaram à atenção.
A Vossa Gothic Clare
Mas apesar disto conta-nos mais particularmente a história das troianas (cativas dos gregos): Cassandra, Andrómaca, Policena e Hécuba.
Ao mesmo tempo que vemos a destruição de Tróia, ficamos a conhecer o destino destas 4 mulheres, que sendo elas esposas de grades guerreiros, acabam por tornar-se escravas e cativas dos gregos. Cada uma com a sua histórias, com as suas catástrofes, mas todas com o mesmo destino, o de esquecerem os seus maridos e servirem até à morte o seu senhor.
Está é uma tragédia que arranca de nós várias emoções, desde despreso pelos gregos, por tudo aquilo que faziam, a nojo, pelas situações de violações, e também nos leva a um estado de grande emoção (que no meu caso me fez chorar), quando Ulisses decide que o filho de Andrómaca e Héctor não deve viver e então ele é arrancado dos braços da mãe e atirado da torre do castelo.
Este último evento foi talvez o que mais me arrepiou e emocionou, o desespero de Andrómaca, que já tinha ficado viúva, ver-se obrigada a "dar" o seu filho, pois o senhor mandava e a vê-lo morrer nas mãos dos maiores inimigos de seu pai.
Apesar destes momentos, ficamos a conhecer outras situações em que provavelmente tenhamos vontade de arrancar os cabelos a alguém. A forma como mulheres e crianças eram tratadas, se não fossem parte da realeza, ou dos deuses. A forma inumana com que tratavam os "Traidores".
Ao longo de todo o livro vai-nos sendo apresentado diversos pontos de vista.
Todo o livro está bem estruturado, pelo menos na minha opinião. Na introdução ficamos a saber o porquê deste ser o destino destas mulheres. No desenvolvimento são nos apresentados os argumentos para este destino e o próprio destino de cada uma, com descrições necessárias para compreender a história. Na conclusão, eu pessoalmente fiquei um pouco confusa, mas encontramos um diálogo entre Hécuba e Menelao em que esta tenta convencê-lo a castigar Helena.
É realmente um bom livro, com algumas lacunas, isto talvez por não conhecer a fundo a história de Ulisses e não ter lido Ilíada (acredito que provavelmente se tivesse lido este livro antes teria outra perspectiva da história).
Foi uma boa leitura apesar de ter sido quase "obrigada" a lê-lo já que as escolhas não eram as mais simpáticas e as outras obras que faziam parte da lista de obras a apresentar não me chamaram à atenção.
A Vossa Gothic Clare
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Personajes femeninos muy fuertes e intervenciones dramaticas profundas. Me ha gustado bastante.
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La tragedia "Troiane" di Euripide esplora in profondità la devastazione provocata dalla guerra, mettendo in luce sia i disastri materiali che quelli morali che essa infligge agli individui. Al centro della vicenda ci sono le donne troiane, le cui vite sono drasticamente cambiate dopo la sconfitta di Troia ad opera degli Achei. Queste donne, ora ridotte a bottino di guerra, sono impotenti di fronte al loro destino e devono confrontarsi con la brutalità e l'ingiustizia della loro nuova realtà.
Tra le protagoniste vi è Ecuba, regina di Troia, che, da figura di grande rispetto e autorevolezza, diventa schiava del re greco Polimestore. Questo drastico rovesciamento del suo status sociale non solo sottolinea la precarietà della condizione umana, ma mette anche in evidenza la crudeltà della guerra nel distruggere le gerarchie e i ruoli sociali stabiliti.
Andromaca, moglie di Ettore, è destinata a Neottolemo, il figlio di Achille, il guerriero che ha ucciso suo marito. La sua nuova situazione rappresenta un ulteriore esempio del capovolgimento dei ruoli e della disumanizzazione che i conflitti tra uomini comportano. La perdita di Ettore e la sua nuova condizione di schiavitù evidenziano l'assurdità e la tragedia delle conseguenze della guerra.
Cassandra, la sacerdotessa di Apollo dotata del dono della profezia, è data in sposa ad Agamennone, il capo degli Achei. La sua capacità di prevedere il destino non allevia il suo dolore; anzi, accentua la sua angoscia, poiché è consapevole del fato ineluttabile che la attende tra le braccia della stirpe maledetta degli Atridi.
Euripide utilizza queste figure emblematiche per denunciare non solo la violenza e l’orrore della guerra, ma anche la fragilità della condizione umana e il radicale cambiamento dei ruoli sociali. La tragedia evidenzia come le donne, che erano nobili e rispettate nella loro patria, vengano ridotte a simboli di sofferenza e impotenza, offrendo una riflessione profonda sulle conseguenze disastrose del conflitto.
Tra le protagoniste vi è Ecuba, regina di Troia, che, da figura di grande rispetto e autorevolezza, diventa schiava del re greco Polimestore. Questo drastico rovesciamento del suo status sociale non solo sottolinea la precarietà della condizione umana, ma mette anche in evidenza la crudeltà della guerra nel distruggere le gerarchie e i ruoli sociali stabiliti.
Andromaca, moglie di Ettore, è destinata a Neottolemo, il figlio di Achille, il guerriero che ha ucciso suo marito. La sua nuova situazione rappresenta un ulteriore esempio del capovolgimento dei ruoli e della disumanizzazione che i conflitti tra uomini comportano. La perdita di Ettore e la sua nuova condizione di schiavitù evidenziano l'assurdità e la tragedia delle conseguenze della guerra.
Cassandra, la sacerdotessa di Apollo dotata del dono della profezia, è data in sposa ad Agamennone, il capo degli Achei. La sua capacità di prevedere il destino non allevia il suo dolore; anzi, accentua la sua angoscia, poiché è consapevole del fato ineluttabile che la attende tra le braccia della stirpe maledetta degli Atridi.
Euripide utilizza queste figure emblematiche per denunciare non solo la violenza e l’orrore della guerra, ma anche la fragilità della condizione umana e il radicale cambiamento dei ruoli sociali. La tragedia evidenzia come le donne, che erano nobili e rispettate nella loro patria, vengano ridotte a simboli di sofferenza e impotenza, offrendo una riflessione profonda sulle conseguenze disastrose del conflitto.
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september 2022
this reread was more of a ‘let’s hunt for quotes’, but it was still good!
april 2022
this hits a lot harder upon reread, and i picked up on a lot of subtleties that i initially missed: the musical motif, the ever constant presence of the gods just in casual dialogue, etc etc. really powerful and affecting.
december 2021
i feel that to truly connect with and like this more than i do, i desperately need to see it live - reading this translation largely felt clunky and awkward despite the often compelling string of monologues.
in terms of school books: better than gatsby, around the same level as regeneration
this reread was more of a ‘let’s hunt for quotes’, but it was still good!
april 2022
this hits a lot harder upon reread, and i picked up on a lot of subtleties that i initially missed: the musical motif, the ever constant presence of the gods just in casual dialogue, etc etc. really powerful and affecting.
december 2021
i feel that to truly connect with and like this more than i do, i desperately need to see it live - reading this translation largely felt clunky and awkward despite the often compelling string of monologues.
in terms of school books: better than gatsby, around the same level as regeneration
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موقع مرگم اینو حتما میگم بعد میمیرم:
این پیکر پیرم بر زمین فرو میافتد و من با این دستم بر این خاک میکوبم.
این پیکر پیرم بر زمین فرو میافتد و من با این دستم بر این خاک میکوبم.
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google search: was euripides a feminist?
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Un capolavoro con la splendida traduzione di Laura Papa. Interessantissimo leggere le vicende che seguono la caduta di Troia.
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