Trojan Women Ramble Review
Euripides' Trojan Women asks a simple question: can things get worse for the victims of war after the fighting ends?
His answer was yes.
The play was performed shortly after the Siege of Melos, where Athens executed the men and enslaved the women and children after the city's destruction.
Rather than telling the story through the Greeks, Euripides forces the audience to confront the very atrocities that won them victory, seeing their own actions reflected in the actions of the very ancestors they admired.
As the other Trojan women grieve for Troy, Cassandra laughs.
Chosen as Agamemnon's slave, she declares that she'll have the final laugh as the first domino in the destruction of the House of Atreus.
"Goodbye, Mother. Do not cry for me. Troy, dear country, brothers, father beneath the earth; soon I shall join the dead. I'll come victorious, ruining the house that ruined us." - Line 458-461
Even after losing everything, Cassandra remains defiant, promising ruin to the Greeks both on their journey home and after their arrival.
Then there's Andromache.
While Hecuba clings to the hope that Troy can live on through Astyanax, Andromache has already accepted what their future holds.
One where freedom and dignity are no longer possible, only survival, and to her, even that isn't worth having.
"I think that being born is not like death; death is better, far, than painful life. Their pains are gone, the dead feel no more pain. But one who falls from fortune to disaster is lost without the happiness she once had." - Line 436-640
It's a dark realization, that their future is one where they're better off dead.
And then the last hope of Troy is taken.
The Greeks order that Astyanax be thrown from the walls, not because of anything he's done, but because of what he might become.
Andromache can only watch as her son is condemned.
"Was it for nothing I fed you at my breast when you were tiny? For nothing that I wore myself to shreds, in looking after you? Now kiss your mother, hug me one last time, nuzzle close to me, kiss me and hold me tight, my own sweet baby... How can you act with such barbarity? You think you're civilized! Why kill this child? He did no harm!" - Line 758-766
The Greeks pride themselves on being civilized victors, the heroes of this grand story, but what victory is there in killing a defenseless child?
And when Hecuba receives her grandson's body, she mourns what could have been and says exactly what the audience has been thinking:
"Oh, Greeks! Your weapons had more force than sense: why did you feel afraid of this young boy? Strange and unnatural killing. Did you fear he'd one day raise up fallen Troy? You're worthless! We were losing even then, when Hector stood strong against your hundred thousand spears. Now this city's taken and we Trojans ruined; and this tiny body frightened you! Don't be afraid unless you've got a reason." - Line 1158-1166
The city has fallen. Hector is dead. Priam is dead. The Trojan army is gone.
And yet, a child is enough to frighten the victors.
There's no glory left in victory.
Only mothers mourning their children, queens becoming slaves, and children robbed of futures.
The walls of Troy had already fallen before the play began.
It's hope that falls during it.
