women of troy Flashcards
prologos
Hecuba’s monody
‘look at me now, throned in the dust […] an old woman, dragged as a slave from my home, all hope plundered from my god-cursed ravaged grey head, with no reprieve from my punishment of everlasting sorrow.’
proud + noble queen = ‘old woman’ w/o hope
position on ground represents change of fortune + new low status
hecuba has no role -> embarrassed + outraged that former queen now useless b/c outlived any reproductive function
hecuba= trophy of war taken to degrade her
euripides invites athenian audience to question treatment of prisoners of war
Athene (Prologos): plans ruin the Greek’s journey
home ‘so that the Greeks will learn their lesson,
and in future, respect my temples, and fear the
power of the gods’
P: ‘A somewhat cavalier change of mind,
surely?’
Troy is destroyed with Ath’s help
- Athene = goddess of wisdom
- Athene = powerful / not wise
- ruins the Greeks b/c feels insulted = capricious
- Even fellow god recognizes Ath = capricious,
fickle nature
Poseidon (Prologos):
‘when a man sacks [and] destroys everything […]
sacred temples [and] tombs […] he’s asking for
trouble. The same destruction sooner or later will
fall on his own head.’
cyclical pattern of history → problems in
contemporary Athens.
- Sinful + barbaric acts → equally sinful + barbaric
retaliation.
Prologos – H’s monody
Hecuba to Chorus:
‘Weep, wives of the bronze armoured Trojans,
grieve for your heroes dead, daughters […]
husbands lost!’
H calls on WoT (Chorus), to lament w/ her in
kommos
- H want WoT to pay homage to men before
their fate becomes clear
- Loss of war → reduced to the most basic
functions of their gender = sex objects +
fertile wombs
Prologos
Hecuba’s monody
Hecuba to Chorus:
‘Troy is burning.’
Troy burning = key metaphor / destruction of
Troy + destruction of women / Hecuba draws
parallels b/t WoT bodies + city.
→ strengthen audience’s sense of destruction
and indignity both have been forced to endure
Troy endures a literal siege + metaphorical rape /
WoT metaphorical siege + literal fear of rape
Prologos - Chorus join H in kommos:
‘a whole generation of women’ were ‘raped in their
bedrooms’
Fall of Troy→ WoT subject to mass abuse
• w/o fathers / husbands / brothers / sons
protection vulnerable
• 10 yrs war → Greek men behave w/o humanity
+ this was considered acceptable in Grk society
• Innocent suffer the most
• WoT = spoils of war
Cassandra Ep. 1 Agamemnon will find her ‘more destructive as a wife than ever Helen was’.
- Cassandra compares marriage to Aga w/ Helen marriages to
Men + Paris → Trojan War → death + destruction
Cass = driven by a desire for vengeance / views own fate to be
slave to Aga’s desire → chance for revenge for Troy / retribution
for Aga’s sins.
Gift of prophecy → Cass know Aga’s choice →
his demise + suffering for Greeks (link to Poseidon card)
Cassandra
Episode 1
‘father and brothers destroyed’
Cass has lost everything – fam / city / virginity =
sacred identity
Cass martyrs herself for revenge
fatal marriage to Aga ➔ his downfall Cass ➔ able
enact revenge on behalf of family / city.
All character think Cass = mad woman BUT…
Cass = only one who can give WoT modicum of solace
Cassandra Ep 1 ‘Who could wait for the wind that fills her sails more eagerly than I do?’ ‘one of avenging furies’
Cass duty = revenge for the war atrocities
Cass = metaphorical Trojan horse = pretend go happily /
willingly into new life w/ Aga
➔ revenge b/c Aga jealous wife kills him
Across play RQs = confusion + helplessness but Cass answers
own RQs
= Cas not helpless victim b/c planning revengeCass duty = revenge for the war atrocities
Cass = metaphorical Trojan horse = pretend go happily /
willingly into new life w/ Aga
➔ revenge b/c Aga jealous wife kills him
Across play RQs = confusion + helplessness but Cass answers
own RQs
= Cas not helpless victim b/c planning revengev
Cassandra – Ep 1:
‘Any sensible man must hate war, he does his best
to avoid it’
‘it is no shame for a city, indeed, it is a crown of
honour to die nobly, with dignity.’
Ath. society = long celebrated + mythologised war
sign of heroism ➔ status + $
BUT through Cass, E suggest ppl hasty going to war
= ignorant + foolish
E worried about Athenian soldiers who dies
attacking foreign countries like Sparta / Melos, etc.
could lose their life for nothing
Whereas dying defending home = honourable
Upcoming Expedition to Sicily = more pointless loss
of life
Cycle of violence b/t Athens + Sparta (link to Pos.
quote) Ath. society = long celebrated + mythologised war
sign of heroism ➔ status + $
BUT through Cass, E suggest ppl hasty going to war
= ignorant + foolish
E worried about Athenian soldiers who dies
attacking foreign countries like Sparta / Melos, etc.
could lose their life for nothing
Whereas dying defending home = honourable
Upcoming Expedition to Sicily = more pointless loss
of life
Cycle of violence b/t Athens + Sparta (link to Pos.
quote)
Cassandra – Ep 1:
‘had forgotten what their children looked like’
‘lie forgotten in a foreign country’
Kleos not achieved
Through C, E challenges audience ➔ ? honour of
war in foreign lands
- Grks were so long away from loved ones @ home
➔ forgotten faces whereas Trojans went home to
fam each night
- bodies of Grk soldiers failed to get the burial rights
their culture demands (link to Ast)
- Emph. contemporary Ath audience needless deaths
replicated in Pelopenesian war (mass loss of life in
Sparta / Melos + upcoming EofSc).
- Forgotten is repeated = emphasis → worst case b/c
Grk war should → reputation / fame
Cassandra – Ep 1
To Talthybius
“Officers of your kind are always hated by
everyone, lackeys. Slaves yourself, doing great
men’s dirty work.”
C attacks T as middle manager
T expresses compassion for Tw but does nothing
to help.
T = part of Grk war machine ➔ facilitates brutal
+ barbaric decisions of generals
Talthybius – Ep 1:
About Cass concubinage to Agamemnon
‘King’s mistress’ / ‘no bad thing”
dehumanising effect of military service → Tal
ignorant of the impact of concubinage on Tw
(most would rather die)
- noun ‘mistress’ = euphemism ➔ masquerade
reality that Cass = Aga sex slave
- →forcing Ath aud to consider foreign policy
during wars esp. following SofM
Ep2 - Andromache: ‘The gods always hated us.’
Chorus in stasimon: prayers to the gods are ‘vain
dreaming, false hopes’
Astyanax murder ➔ Andromache + Hecuba losing
hope
- ➔ realisation gods abandoned Troy
- Hecuba + Andromache = loyal servants to gods
- praying = futile / folly
- Reinforced by chorus in the Ep2 stasimon b/c
realise gods do not care abt woT
Ep2 – Andromache claims ‘you Greeks’ have
‘dreamed up such cruelties even the barbarians
would flinch at’
Challenges Athenian assumptions / arrogance
- Forces Athenian audience to reconsider their
ideology about war / duty
- Makes them reflect on contemporary issues, e.g.
the atrocities and constant fighting of the
Peloponnesian War (SofM & EtoS)
