The Trojan Women of Euripides

In Short

This tragic Greek drama captures the immediate aftermath of Troy’s fall, focusing entirely on the captive royal women as they await their transport to Greece as slaves. With no traditional battle plot, the play centers on the emotional and spiritual devastation of Queen Hecuba, her prophet daughter Cassandra, her daughter-in-law Andromache, and the scandalous Helen. Euripides strips away military glory to reveal the hollow triumph of the victors and the endurance of the vanquished, creating an enduring masterpiece on the human cost of war.

The Story

The play opens in the dim dusk of early dawn before the ruined walls of Troy. The god Poseidon surveys the fallen city, its treasures plundered and its altars abandoned. Hecuba, the aged Queen of Troy, wakes from the dirt, crushed by grief over her slain husband Priam and her fallen sons. As the sun rises, the Greek herald Talthybius arrives to deliver the decisions of the victorious host. The captive women are not to be kept together; instead, lots have been drawn for each individually.

Hecuba learns the bitter fates assigned to her family. Her prophetic daughter, Cassandra, who has taken a vow of sacred maidenhood to Apollo, is claimed by Agamemnon as his personal concubine. Her daughter-in-law, Andromache, widow of the noble Hector, is taken by Achilles’s son, Pyrrhus. Hecuba herself is handed over as a slave to Odysseus, a man she despises. When Hecuba inquires after her young daughter Polyxena, Talthybius speaks evasively, leaving Hecuba to realize only later that the girl has been slaughtered as a sacrifice upon the tomb of Achilles.

Cassandra emerges bearing a torch, feigning a ecstatic bridal song. Driven by her prophetic foresight, she reveals that her forced union with Agamemnon will bring about his bloody murder and the complete ruin of his royal house. She insists that Troy, in its honorable defeat, remains nobler than the Greeks, who sacrificed their own children and died on distant shores for the sake of one unfaithful woman.

Andromache is brought forward on a chariot loaded with bronze spoils, clutching her infant son, Astyanax. She and Hecuba weep together over their losses, contrasting the peace of the dead with the endless suffering of the living. Their grief is shattered when Talthybius returns with a cruel decree from Odysseus and the Greek council: young Astyanax must not be allowed to grow into manhood. He is to be thrown headlong from the high battlements of Troy. Bound by powerlessness, Andromache bids a heartbreaking farewell to her child before she is led away to the Greek ships.

Menelaus enters, intent on taking vengeance against Helen, the wife who fled with Paris and ignited the decade-long war. Helen defends herself by blaming divine intervention and the irresistible power of Aphrodite. Hecuba fiercely refutes her, exposing Helen’s arguments as selfish excuses for her own lust and desire for Trojan luxury. Menelaus resolves to take Helen back to Greece to face execution, though Hecuba warns him of Helen’s lingering seductiveness.

Finally, Talthybius returns carrying the broken body of little Astyanax on Hector’s shield. Hecuba lovingly prepares her grandson’s body for burial, wrapping him in ruined Phrygian robes. As torches are set to the remaining walls of Troy, the city crashes down in smoke and dust. Hecuba attempts to throw herself into the flames, but the soldiers restrain her. Guided by the blare of the Greek trumpet, Hecuba and the chorus of captive women march toward the shore to begin their lives in slavery.

How It Unfolds

The morning of captivity Queen Hecuba rouses herself from the dusty ground at dawn to mourn her fallen city, her dead husband Priam, and her lost children. The chorus of captive Trojan women emerges from their huts in fear as the Greek ships rest on the horizon.

The casting of the lots The herald Talthybius arrives with news of the Greek army's decisions, assigning each woman to a different master. Hecuba learns that Cassandra goes to Agamemnon, Andromache to Pyrrhus, and she herself to Odysseus, while Polyxena has been secretly killed at Achilles's tomb.

The bride's wild prophecy Cassandra appears holding a flame, singing a terrifying wedding song that foretells the murder of Agamemnon and the destruction of his lineage. She proclaims that the Trojan dead are far happier than the victorious Greeks who sacrificed everything for a fleeing wife.

The decree against the child Andromache arrives in a chariot bearing Hector's child, Astyanax, sharing her deep despair with Hecuba. Talthybius interrupts their mourning to deliver the council's order that the boy must be thrown from the city walls to prevent future vengeance.

The trial of Helen King Menelaus demands that Helen be dragged out to face execution, but Helen pleads her case by blaming the gods. Hecuba counters her arguments, exposing her vanity and betrayal, while Menelaus agrees to take her home for eventual punishment.

The final farewell to Troy Talthybius returns with the corpse of Astyanax resting on Hector's bronze shield, leaving Hecuba to perform the funeral rites over her grandson. As fire consumes the fortress and the walls crash to the earth, the trumpet sounds, driving the women down to the ships.

The People

Hecuba The widowed Queen of Troy and central figure of the play. She wants to protect the surviving members of her family and preserve some dignity amidst ruin. Facing the murder of her grandson and the loss of her daughters, she shifts from deep sorrow to a sharp, visionary understanding of human suffering, ending her journey as an impoverished slave walking toward the Greek fleet.

Andromache The widow of Prince Hector. She wants to shield her infant son Astyanax and maintain the honor of her past marriage. When the Greek leaders sentence her child to death from the city walls, she is forced to surrender him to save his body from being left unburied, leaving her entirely broken as she is carried off to Pyrrhus's bed.

Cassandra The daughter of Hecuba, consecrated as a prophetess of Apollo. She wants to execute divine vengeance against the conquerors of her home. Though mocked as mad, she sees clearly that her forced marriage to Agamemnon will bring about his downfall, going to her doom with fierce satisfaction.

Helen The Queen of Sparta whose flight with Paris caused the Trojan War. She wants to save her own life by convincing Menelaus that she was a helpless victim of divine will. She uses her charm and intellect to deflect blame, surviving the immediate wrath of her husband.

Talthybius The Greek herald sent to carry out the orders of Menelaus, Agamemnon, and Odysseus. He wants to fulfill his military duty efficiently, but his conscience is torn by the cruelty he must enforce upon defenseless women and children.

In Its Own Voice

"For tears are music too, and keep / A song unheard in hearts that weep."

Hecuba lies on the ground, overwhelmed by the physical and emotional agony of her total loss.

"Would ye be wise, ye Cities, fly from war! / Yet if war come, there is a crown in death / For her that striveth well and perisheth / Unstained: to die in evil were the stain!"

Cassandra addresses her mother, explaining why the fallen defenders of Troy have achieved a higher glory than their conquerors.

"Death cannot be what Life is, Child; the cup / Of Death is empty, and Life hath always hope."

Hecuba tries to offer comfort to Andromache, who is grieving the death of Polyxena and facing a bleak future in captivity.

What It's Really About

The play is an unsparing indictment of war that strips away traditional military heroism to focus on its human costs. Rather than celebrating victory, Euripides highlights the moral decay of the conquerors and the vulnerability of the innocent. Through Hecuba’s tragedy, the drama explores how sudden catastrophe reduces power, wealth, and status to absolute nothingness. Yet underneath this devastation lies an investigation into resilience: when the gods prove distant or indifferent, human beings find a solemn dignity in enduring despair together. The play argues that true moral victory belongs not to those who inflict violence, but to those who bear their suffering with courage and honor.

Why Read It Today

The Trojan Women remains one of the most powerful anti-war dramas ever written, offering a stark examination of civilian trauma that feels strikingly modern. Readers drawn to classic literature, historical drama, or political theater will appreciate how directly Euripides confronts the horrors of conquest without resorting to easy sentimentality.

The play's primary challenge lies in its structure and form. It offers little traditional plot movement or physical action, operating instead as a series of intense, emotional confrontations framed around a single tragic situation. Readers must also adjust to Gilbert Murray’s rhyming verse translation, which uses late-Victorian poetic diction that can occasionally feel formal to contemporary ears.

Despite these archaic stylistic touches, the emotional core of the play hits with total clarity. The devastating scene in which Andromache bids farewell to her young son, alongside Hecuba’s grief over her destroyed city, carries a timeless power. It is a brief, intense read that stays with you long after the final trumpet sounds, forcing an honest reckoning with the true price of human conflict.