Women of Troy is a tragedy which takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Trojan war, critiquing the atrocities committed by the Greeks to both people of Melos and Troy. The play centres on Hecuba, the fallen queen of Troy, and her grief at the loss of her city and her family at the conclusion of the Trojan War. Her daughter, Cassandra, mourns the loss of her service as maiden priestess in the temple of Apollo and captivates the audience as the mysterious and frenzied priestess.
‘When a man who takes a city includes in the general destruction
Temples of the high gods and tombs that honour the dead,
He is a fool; his own destruction follows him close.’ (Poseidon)
‘Come, you widowed brides of Trojan fighting-men,
Weeping mothers, trembling daughters,
Come, weep with me while the smoke goes up from Troy!’ (Hecabe)\
‘Poor creature! You are out of your mind, with all you have been through.’ (Talthybius)
‘Oh, my brothers, buried in this dear earth of Troy,
My father, you have not long to wait for me. I will come
To the House of Death triumphant, my hands and garments
Red
With the blood of House of Atreus, who brought our Troy to dust!’ (Cassandra)
‘It was terrible; but she [Polyxena] is dead now; and being dead she is happier than I who am left alive.’ (Andromache)
‘What happened in my own heart, to make me desert my own country and my home and go away with this man whom I hardly knew? The power of love is something neither I nor you can resist… you should show Aphrodite your anger, me your forgiveness.’ (Helen)
‘Reverberations rock the walls,
Each ruin reels and sinks engulfed!
Come, trembling aged feet,
You must not fail me now.’ (Hecabe)
Bust of Euripides:
Roman marble copy of a fourth-century BC Greek original (Museo Pio-Clementino Rome)
The Trojan Women - 1971 (Director - Michael Cacoyannis)
The women of defeated Troy are at the mercy of the Greeks in this adaption of Euripides' tragic anti-war play. The unbeatable cast is lead by Katharine Hepburn, Irene Papas, Genevieve Bujold and Vanessa Redgrave.
Join Darebin Libraries and view on Kanopy
Alcestis and Other Plays by 
The Bacchae and Other Plays by 