Τρῳάδες
Trojan Women
Euripides · first staged City Dionysia, 415 BC · second prize, behind Xenocles
Troy has fallen. Its women wait to learn which Greek each has been given to, and Hector’s small son is thrown from the walls.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Πο.Poseidon
- Αθ.Athena
- Εκ.Hecuba
- Ημι. ΑʹFirst Semichorus
- Ημι. ΒʹSecond Semichorus
- Χο.Chorus
- Τα.Talthybius
- Κα.Cassandra
- Αν.Andromache
- Με.Menelaus
- Ελ.Helen
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Murray's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Coleridge, rev. Trojan Women Heroization team (Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Diggle's Greek
- Gilbert Murrayverse · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Eur. Tro. 1–1332
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
The morning after Troy's fall. The women of the city wait on the shore to learn which Greek each has been assigned to. Hecuba goes to Odysseus, Cassandra to Agamemnon, Andromache to Neoptolemus. Then Andromache learns what the Greeks have decided about her small son Astyanax: he is to be thrown from the walls, and he is. Helen is brought out, and Menelaus lets her plead her case with Hecuba as prosecutor; he says she will die in Argos and has her taken to the ships. The child is buried on his father's shield, the city is set alight, and the women are marched to the ships.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1847 plate of a red-figure amphora (Gerhard, Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder III, Taf. CLXIX, 4); cut out and retraced.