Book review: The Trojan Women
| Title: | The Trojan Women |
|---|---|
| Author: | Euripides |
| Translator: | Richmond Lattimore |
| ISBN: | 9780226308821 |
| Year published: | 1947 |
| Year I read: | 2025 |
| Rating: | 👍👍 Cool |
| Recommended for: | Trojan War enthusiasts |
Athena: Did you not know they outraged my temple, and shamed me?
Poseidon: I know that Ajax dragged Cassandra thence by force.
Athena: And the Achaeans did nothing. They did not even speak.
Taking place immediately after the siege of Troy, this play portrays the grim fates of Troy’s surviving women and children.
It is sad that the music is lost to time. While reading, you can imagine the music and dancing heightening a lot of the emotion and beauty of these words.
I love Cassandra, and her mad joyfulness in the face of sorrow.
Personally not a fan of Euripides (or rather, his characters) leaning super heavy into Helen being a wilfully destructive femme fatale.[1] Priam, Hector, and presumably his other sons accepted her as family, so I wish that this were the case with the women as well. Odysseus throws Astyanax off a tower and Hecuba is like “Look how Helen has murdered you, child.” Sigh. In-laws, am I right? 🙄
First, it takes two to tango.[2] Second, doesn’t Menelaus’ behavior, through taking part in the Achaeans’ barbarity and in this very play, kind of prove her point as to why she left? You can’t expect Euripides to be feminist all the time – and even he gives her a chance to speak and defend herself, whether that has an effect on anybody or not.[3]
But this is just a matter of personal taste – there are endless different portrayals of Helen in literature. And while I hate women hating on other women, it does happen often tbh.
I found the ending very moving in its lack of resolve. It is simply over for Troy and for the life they knew, and that is the most tragic ending of all.
I liked her portrayal in the Iliad, which is understated. Also, I headcanon Agamemnon and Menelaus as warmongerers who used Helen’s elopement with Paris as an opportunity to sack Troy, rather than a genuine justification for 10 years of bloody losses on both sides. I know xenia was important and all that, but the Atreides were also assholes who wanted wealth and glory and were willing to use a bunch of Achaeans and Trojans to get that. IMO, Thersites was right, and even Achilles’ rage towards Agamemnon was not unfounded. ↩︎
Paris does get a call out in Euripides’ other play Hecuba – yes, he wrote another play with the same characters and setting! I suppose Paris is left alone here to heighten sympathy for Trojans. ↩︎
One thing I’ve enjoyed in reading Euripides is seeing people make their case, especially when they are obviously being monsters, such as Odysseus and Polymestor in Hecuba and Menelaus in Andromache. Their logic, however twisted, is nonetheless eloquent. ↩︎