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{{Short description|Ancient Greek tragedy by Euripides}}
{{for|other uses of the terms The Trojan Women or Women of Troy|The Trojan Women (disambiguation)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
{{Infobox play | name = The Trojan Women 
| image = Astianax.jpg
| caption = An engraving of the death of [[Astyanax]]
| writer = [[Euripides]]
| chorus = [[Troy|Trojan]] women
| characters = [[Hecuba]]<br />[[Cassandra]]<br />[[Andromache]]<br />[[Talthybius]]<br />[[Menelaus]]<br />[[Helen of Troy|Helen]]<br />[[Poseidon]]<br />[[Athena]]
| setting = Near the walls of Troy
| place      = [[Classical Athens|Athens]]
| orig_lang  = [[Ancient Greek]]
| genre      = [[Tragedy]]
}}
{{Trojan War}}

'''''The Trojan Women''''' ({{langx|grc|Τρῳάδες|translit=Trōiades}}, lit. "The Female Trojans") is a [[tragedy]] by the [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[playwright]] [[Euripides]], produced in 415 BCE. Also translated as ''The Women of Troy,'' or as its transliterated Greek title ''Troades''',''' The Trojan Women'' presents commentary on the costs of war through the lens of women and children.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Trojan Women |url=https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/mythology/trojan_women.html |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=public.wsu.edu}}</ref> The four central women of the play are the same that appear in the final book of the ''[[Iliad]],'' lamenting over the corpse of Hector after the [[Trojan War]]. 

''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]'', another tragedy by Euripides, similarly deals with the experiences of women left behind by war and was more popular in antiquity.<ref>{{Cite web |title=4. The Captive Woman's Lament and Her Revenge in Euripides' Hecuba |url=https://chs.harvard.edu/chapter/4-the-captive-womans-lament-and-her-revenge-in-euripides-hecuba/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=The Center for Hellenic Studies |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=Berkeley>{{Cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |date=2013 |title=The Trojan Women: Introduction |url=https://tdps.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/introduction_to_the_trojan_women_by_mark_griffith_and_glenn_most_-_university_of_chicago_press_-_2013.pdf |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=Berkeley Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies}}</ref>

The tragedy has inspired many modern adaptation across film, literature, and the stage. 

== Historical background ==
Scholar [[Neil Croally]] believes that ''The Trojan Women'' was written as a reaction to the [[Siege of Melos#:~:text=Athens invaded Melos in the,enslaved the women and children.|Siege of Melos]] in 416 BCE during the [[Peloponnesian War]], in which Athens invaded the [[Aegean Sea|Aegean]] island of [[Milos|Melos]], destroyed its city, and slaughtered and enslaved its populace ''(see [[Milos#History|History of Milos]])''.<ref name=":0">See Croally 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Trojan Women |url=https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/mythology/trojan_women.html |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=public.wsu.edu}}</ref> However, historian [[Mark Ringer]] regards this as unlikely, as Euripides was probably developing his play before the siege of Melos even began, with only a month or two after its fall to make revision, and such commentary could have offended Athenian audiences of the production.<ref>{{harvp|Ringer|2016|p=165}}</ref>

It is the third play in a [[tetralogy]] by Euripides, all drawn from the same source material: the ''Iliad''. The other works in the tetralogy include the tragedies ''Alexandros'' and ''Palamedes,'' and the comedic [[satyr play]] [[Sisyphus fragment|''Sisyphus'']], all of which are largely lost, and only fragments survive.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Review of: Euripides, Alexandros: Introduction, Text and Commentary. Texte und Kommentare, 57 |url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2018/2018.09.56/ |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |issn=1055-7660}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=UCL |date=2018-11-15 |title=Euripides, Trojan Women |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/classics/classical-play/past-productions/2013-euripides-trojan-women/euripides-trojan-women |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=Department of Greek & Latin |language=en}}</ref><ref name=Berkeley /> ''The'' ''Trojan Women'' was performed for the first time in 415 BCE as part of this tetralogy at the [[Dionysia|City Dionysia]] festival in Athens.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Johnston |first=Ian |title=Euripides The Trojan Women 415 BC |date=March 2022 |pages=Introductory Note}}</ref> Euripides won second place, losing to the obscure tragedian [[Xenocles]].<ref>[[Claudius Aelianus]]: ''Varia Historia'' [http://penelope.uchicago.edu/aelian/varhist2.xhtml 2.8.] (page may cause problems with [[Internet Explorer]])</ref>

==Plot==

{{Quotation|[[Hecuba]]: ''Alas! Alas! Alas! Ilion is ablaze; the fire consumes the citadel, the roofs of our city, the tops of the walls!''<br />
Chorus: ''Like smoke blown to heaven on the wings of the wind, our country, our conquered country, perishes. Its palaces are overrun by the fierce flames and the murderous spear.''<br />
Hecuba: ''O land that reared my children!''}}

Euripides's play follows the fates of the women of [[Troy]] after their city has been sacked, their husbands killed, and their remaining families taken away as slaves. However, it begins first with the gods [[Athena]] and [[Poseidon]] discussing ways to punish the Greek armies because they condoned that [[Ajax the Lesser]] raped [[Cassandra]], the eldest daughter of King [[Priam]] and Queen [[Hecuba]], after dragging her from a statue of Athena. What follows shows how much the Trojan women have suffered as their grief is compounded when the Greeks dole out additional deaths and divide their shares of women. The Greek herald [[Talthybius]] arrives to tell the dethroned queen Hecuba what will befall her and her children. Hecuba will be taken away to the Greek king [[Odysseus]], and Cassandra is destined to become the conquering king [[Agamemnon|Agamemnon's]] [[Concubinage|concubine]].
[[File:Sacrifice_Polyxena_BM_GR1897.7-27.2.jpg|thumb|Sacrifice of [[Polyxena]] by the Greeks on an [[Black-figure pottery|Attic black-figure Tyrrhenian amphora]]]]
Cassandra, who can see the future, is morbidly delighted by this news: she sees that when they arrive in [[Ancient Argos|Argos]], her new master's embittered wife [[Clytemnestra]] will kill both her and her new master. She sings a wedding song for herself and Agamemnon that describes their bloody deaths. However, Cassandra is also cursed so that her visions of the future are never believed, and she is carried off.

The widowed princess [[Andromache]] arrives and Hecuba learns from her that her youngest daughter, [[Polyxena]], has been killed as a sacrifice at the tomb of the Greek warrior [[Achilles]].

Andromache's lot is to be the concubine of Achilles' son [[Neoptolemus]], and more horrible news for the royal family is yet to come: Talthybius reluctantly informs her that her baby son, [[Astyanax]], has been condemned to die. The Greek leaders are afraid that the boy will grow up to avenge his father [[Hector]], and rather than take this chance, they plan to throw him off from the battlements of Troy to his death.
[[File:Death_of_Astyanax.jpg|thumb|[[Neoptolemus]] killing [[Priam]] and [[Astyanax]]]]
[[Helen of Troy|Helen]] is supposed to suffer greatly as well: [[Menelaus]] arrives to take her back to Greece with him where a death sentence awaits her. Helen tries to convince Menelaus that [[Aphrodite]] was the cause of her betrayal and that she should not be punished, but Hecuba says that Helen is lying and has only ever been loyal to herself. While he remains resolved that he will slay her when they return to Greece, at the end of the play it is revealed that she is still alive; moreover, the audience knows from [[Telemachus]]' visit to Sparta in Homer's ''[[Odyssey]]'' that Menelaus continued to live with Helen as his wife after the Trojan War.

In the end, Talthybius returns, carrying with him the body of little Astyanax on Hector's shield. Andromache's wish had been to bury her child herself, performing the proper rituals according to Trojan ways, but her ship had already departed. Talthybius gives the corpse to Hecuba, who prepares the body of her grandson for burial before they are finally taken off with Odysseus.

Throughout the play, many of the Trojan women lament the loss of the land that reared them. Hecuba in particular lets it be known that Troy had been her home for her entire life, only to see herself as an old grandmother watching the burning of Troy, the death of her husband, her children, and her grandchildren before she will be taken as a slave to Odysseus.

== Themes and significance ==
<blockquote>[[Hecuba]]: ''O my dear child, it is not the same to be alive and dead. The one is nothing but in the other there is hope.'' 

[[Andromache]]: ''Mother, listen to my argument, a powerful one, that I offer as a comfort to your heart. I say that never to have been is the same as death, but to die is better than to live in grief''. </blockquote>''The Trojan Women'' presents an anti-war narrative as it highlights the postwar experiences of the women left behind after the Trojan War. The women of Troy experience grief and suffering over the loss of their husbands and children. The tragedy also calls attention to how women were treated as commodities in antiquity by showing how they were divided among the remaining men as spoils of war. The character of Cassandra demonstrates how women were not listened to or taken seriously, but rather, seen as hysterical and irrational.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Who is Cassandra? {{!}} Operavision |url=https://operavision.eu/feature/who-cassandra |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=operavision.eu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Euripides and Feminism |url=https://www.classicsnetwork.com/essays/euripides-and-feminism/203#google_vignette |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=www.classicsnetwork.com}}</ref>

Euripides' social commentary on the costs of war ''The Trojan Women'' has left a lasting legacy. Many of its themes still resonate with the public today, inspiring modern adaptations.  

==Modern treatments and adaptations==
===Film===
The Mexican film ''Las Troyanas'' (1963) directed by [[Sergio Véjar]], adapted by writer Miguel Angel Garibay and Véjar, is faithful to the Greek text and setting.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

[[Cypriot-Greek]] director [[Michael Cacoyannis]] used Euripides' play (in the famous [[Edith Hamilton]] translation) as the basis for his 1971 film ''[[The Trojan Women (film)|The Trojan Women]]''. The movie starred American actress [[Katharine Hepburn]] as Hecuba, British actors [[Vanessa Redgrave]] and [[Brian Blessed]] as Andromache and Talthybius, [[French-Canadian]] actress [[Geneviève Bujold]] as Cassandra, Greek actress [[Irene Papas]] as Helen, and [[Northern Ireland]]-born [[Patrick Magee (actor)|Patrick Magee]] as Menelaus.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

===Novel===
[[Sheri Tepper]] wove ''The Trojan Women'' into her 1988 [[feminist science fiction]] novel ''[[The Gate to Women's Country]]''.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

===Stage===
A 1905 stage version, translated by [[Gilbert Murray]], starred [[Gertrude Kingston]] as [[Helen of Troy|Helen]] and [[Ada Ferrar]] as Athena at the [[Royal Court Theatre]] in London.<ref>[http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/desmond-maccarthy/the-court-theatre-1904-1907-a-commentary-and-criticism-with-an-appendix-conta-hci/page-10-the-court-theatre-1904-1907-a-commentary-and-criticism-with-an-appendix-conta-hci.shtml] MacCarthy, Desmond ''The Court Theatre, 1904-1907; a Commentary and Criticism''</ref>

The French public intellectual [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] wrote a version of ''The Trojan Women'' (''Les Troyennes'') in 1965.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

Israeli playwright [[Hanoch Levin]] (1943–1999) wrote his own version of the play, ''The Lost Women of Troy'', adding more disturbing scenes and scatological details.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

In 1974, Ellen Stewart, founder of [[La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club]] in [[New York City]], presented ''The Trojan Women'' as the last fragment of a trilogy (which included ''[[Medea (play)|Medea]]'' and ''[[Electra (Euripides play)| Electra]]'').  With staging by Romanian-born theatre director Andrei Serban and music by American composer Elizabeth Swados, this production went on to tour more than 30 countries over the course of 40 years.  Since 2014, The Trojan Women Project has been sharing this production{{when|date=March 2023}} with diverse communities that now{{when|date=March 2023}} include Guatemala, Cambodia and [[Kosovo]].{{cn|date= March 2023}}

[[Charles L. Mee]] adapted ''The Trojan Women'' in 1994 to have a more modern, updated outlook on war. He included original interviews with [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] and [[Hiroshima]] survivors. His play is called ''Trojan Women: A Love Story''.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

In 2000, the [[Oregon Shakespeare Festival]] produced the play in modern costumes and props, with the Greek soldiers wearing [[camouflage]] and carrying [[assault rifles]].<ref>{{cite web | title=The Trojan Women|website=Oregon Shakespeare Festival| url=https://www.osfashland.org/-/media/pdf/Company/PHD-Decades/2000s-Production-History.ashx?la=en&hash=68CECAFB5346141D766E296B58DD77E4E3D4B8C9 | access-date=28 June 2024}}</ref>

[[David Stuttard]]’s 2001 adaptation, ''Trojan Women'',<ref>Stuttard, David, ''An Introduction to Trojan Women'' (Brighton 2005)</ref> written in the aftermath of the [[September 11 attacks]], toured widely within the UK and was staged internationally. In an attempt to reposition ''The Trojan Women'' as the third play of a trilogy, Stuttard then reconstructed Euripides' lost ''Alexandros'' and ''Palamedes'' (in 2005 and 2006 respectively), to form a "Trojan Trilogy", which was performed in readings at the [[British Museum]] and [[Tristan Bates Theatre]] (2007), and Europe House (2012) in [[London]]. He also wrote a version of the [[satyr play]] ''Sisyphus'' (2008) to round off Euripides' original trilogy.<ref>{{cite web | title=David Stuttard reconstructing Euripides' Trojan trilogy | website=Open University | url=https://www.open.ac.uk/arts/research/pvcrs/2007/stuttard | access-date=13 April 2022}}</ref>

[[Femi Osofisan]]'s 2004 play ''[[Women of Owu]]'' sets the story in 1821, after the conquest of the [[Owu kingdom]] by a coalition of other [[West Africa]]n states. Although it is set in 19th century Africa, Osofisan has said that the play was also inspired by the [[2003 invasion of Iraq]] by the U.S.-led coalition.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Osofisan|first1=Femi|title=Women of Owu|date=2006|publisher=University Press PLC|location=Ibadan, Nigeria|isbn=978-069-026-3|page=vii}}</ref>

[[File:Trojan Women - Hecuba & Talthybios.jpg|thumb|Willow Hale (Hecuba) and Sterling Wolfe (Talthybius) in ''The Trojan Women,'' directed by [[Brad Mays]] at the [[ARK Theatre Company]] (2003)]]
[[Brad Mays]] directed a [[multimedia]] production for the [[ARK Theatre Company]] in [[Los Angeles]] in 2003. The play opened with a faux [[CNN]] TV news report intended to echo the then-current [[Iraq war|war in Iraq]].<ref>{{cite web | title=Gallery: Trojan Women | website=Brad Mays | url=http://www.bradmays.com/gallery/trojan_women.html | access-date=15 March 2023}}</ref> A documentary film was made of the production, released in 2004.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nQ1PSLJAdSQC&dq=%22Brad+MAys%22+Bacchae&pg=PA215|title=Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood Epic|first=Martin M.|last=Winkler|date=12 July 2006|publisher=Wiley|isbn=9781405131834|accessdate=13 April 2022|via=Google Books}}</ref>

''The Women of Troy'', directed by [[Katie Mitchell]], was performed at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] in London in 2007/08. The cast included [[Kate Duchêne]] as Hecuba, Sinead Matthews as Cassandra and [[Anastasia Hille]] as Andromache.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

''The Trojan Women'', directed by [[Marti Maraden]], was performed at the [[Stratford Shakespeare Festival]] at the Tom Patterson Theatre in [[Stratford, Ontario]], Canada, from 14 May to 5 October 2008 with Canadian actress [[Martha Henry]] as Hecuba.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

Christine Evans reworked and modernised the ''Trojan Women'' story in her 2009 play ''Trojan Barbie''. ''Trojan Barbie'' is a [[postmodern]] updating, which blends the modern and ancient worlds, as contemporary London doll repair shop owner Lotte is pulled into a Trojan women's prison camp that is located in both ancient Troy and the modern Middle East.<ref>{{cite web |title="Trojan Barbie: A Car-Crash Encounter with Euripides' 'Trojan Women'" by newest faculty member Christine Evans |url=https://performingarts.georgetown.edu/announcements/trojan-barbie/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220110104/https://performingarts.georgetown.edu/trojan-barbie |archive-date=20 December 2016 |access-date=12 December 2016 |website=Department of Performing Arts |publisher=[[Georgetown University]]}}</ref>

In 2011, [[Anne Bogart]]'s [[Saratoga International Theater Institute|SITI Company]] premiered ''Trojan Women (After Euripides)'' at Getty Villa before touring the production.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

In 2016, Zoe Lafferty's version of the play, ''Queens of Syria'', in Arabic with English subtitles, was put on by the [[Young Vic]] before touring Britain.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Masters |first1=Tim |title=Queens of Syria gives modern twist to ancient tale |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-36711948 |publisher=BBC |access-date=6 July 2016 |date=6 July 2016}}</ref>

In 2021, [[Anne Carson]], the experimental poet, translator, and classicist, published her translation as ''Trojan Women: A Comic'' with illustrations by [[Rosanna Bruno]], a portion of which was excerpted earlier that year in the 236th issue of the ''[[Paris Review]]''.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theparisreview.org/miscellaneous/7662/from-euripides-the-trojan-women-anne-carson-rosanna-bruno | title=From Euripides' "The Trojan Women" | newspaper=The Paris Review }}</ref> Carson's vision was realised by Bruno to stage the production of a tragedy in the form of a "comic," or [[graphic novel]] with the characters cast as uncanny figures, such as [[Hekabe]] as an old, once-regal dog, the goddess [[Athena]] as a pair of overalls wearing an owl mask, and the murdered baby [[Astyanax]] (last heir to the Trojan throne) as a [[poplar tree]] sapling.{{cn|date= March 2023}}

In March 2023 a production of ''Women of Troy'' directed by [[Ben Winspear]] and starring his wife actor-producer [[Marta Dusseldorp]] was staged at the [[10 Days on the Island]] festival in [[Tasmania]], Australia. Poetry by Iranian-Kurdish refugee [[Behrouz Boochani]], who was for many years detained by the Australian Government in [[Manus Island detention centre]], was set to music composed by [[Katie Noonan]] and performed by a chorus of Tasmanian women and girls, interspersed with the text of the play.<ref>{{cite web | last=Ross | first=Selina | title=Former detainee and advocate Behrouz Boochani brings new life to an ancient play  | website=ABC News| publisher= [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]| date=5 March 2023 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-05/behrouz-boochani-women-of-troy-adaptation-tasmania/102052790 | access-date=15 March 2023}}</ref>

===Music Theater===

On July 7, 1986, the opera, ''Troades'',<ref>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troades_(opera)</ref> with a libretto by conductor [[Gerd Albrecht]] and composer [[Aribert Reimann]] based on the German translation by [[Franz Werfel]], the author of ''[[The Song of Bernadette (novel)|The Song of Bernadette]]'', opened the 1986 Munich Opera Festival.  It had been commissioned by the [[Bavarian State Opera]], which mounted the production in the National Theater Munich.

==Translations==

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Translator
! Year
! Style
! Full text
|-
| [[Robert Potter (translator)|Robert Potter]]
| 1781
| [[Verse (poetry)|Verse]]
| [https://archive.org/details/playsofeuripide01euri/page/62/mode/2up]
|-
| [[s:Author:Edward Philip Coleridge|Edward Philip Coleridge]]
| 1891
| [[Prose]]
| [[s:The_Plays_of_Euripides_(Coleridge)/The_Trojan_Women|full text at Wikisource]]
|-
| [[Arthur Way]]
| 1896
| [[Verse (poetry)|Verse]]
| [[s:Tragedies of Euripides (Way)/The Daughters of Troy|full text at Wikisource]]
|-
| [[Gilbert Murray]]
| 1905
| [[Verse (poetry)|Verse]]
| [[s:Trojan Women (Murray 1905)|full text at Wikisource]]
|-
| [[Moses Hadas]] and John McLean
| 1936
| Prose
| 
|-
| [[Edith Hamilton]]
| 1937
| Verse
| 
|-
| [[Richmond Lattimore]]
| 1947
| Verse
| [https://archive.org/details/euripidesiiihecu00euri available for digital loan]
|-
| [[Isabelle Raubitschek]] and Anthony E. Raubitschek
| 1954
| Prose
| 
|-
| [[Philip Vellacott]]
| 1954
| Prose and verse
| 
|-
|[[Gwendolyn MacEwen]]
| 1981
| Prose
| 
|-
| [[Shirley Barlow|Shirley A. Barlow]]
| 1986
| Prose
| 
|-
|[[Don Taylor (English director and playwright)|Don Taylor]]
|1990
|Prose and verse
|
|-
| David Kovacs
| 1999 
| Prose
|
|-
| [[James Morwood]]
| 2000
| Prose
| 
|-
| [[Howard Rubenstein (physician)|Howard Rubenstein]]
| 2002
| Verse
| 
|-
| [[Ellen McLaughlin]]
| 2005
| Prose
| 
|-
|George Theodoridis
|2008
|Prose
|[http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/euripides/trojan-women/]
|-
| [[Alan Shapiro (poet)|Alan Shapiro]]
| 2009
| Prose
| 
|-
| [[Emily Wilson (classicist)|Emily Wilson]]
| 2016
| Verse
| 
|-
| [[Anne Carson]]
| 2021
| Comic Book, verse 
| Euripides' Trojan Women: A Comic, with illustrations by Rosanna Bruno 
|}

==See also==
*[[List of plays with anti-war themes]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Croally, Neil (2007). ''Euripidean Polemic: The Trojan Women and the Function of Tragedy''. [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|0-521-04112-0}}
*{{cite book|last=Ringer|first=Mark|date=2016|title=Euripides and the Boundaries of the Human|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=9781498518444}}

==Additional resources==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20051029045428/http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/women.html Mortal Women of the Trojan War], information on each of the Trojan women
*{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Troades|year=1905}}

==External links==
* {{wikisource-inline|Trojan Women|''The Trojan Women''|single=true}} (multiple English translations)
* {{Commonscat-inline|The Trojan Women|''The Trojan Women''}}
* {{librivox book | title=The Trojan Women | author=EURIPIDES}}

{{Euripides Plays}}
{{The Trojan Women}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trojan women}}
[[Category:Plays by Euripides]]
[[Category:Trojan War literature]]
[[Category:Anti-war plays]]
[[Category:Women and death]]
[[Category:Plays set in ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Greek plays adapted into films]]
[[Category:Women in ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Plays based on classical mythology]]
[[Category:Cultural depictions of Helen of Troy]]
[[Category:Greek and Roman deities in fiction]]
[[Category:Athena in fiction]]
[[Category:Poseidon]]
[[Category:Cassandra]]