The Cost of War

Although at the time of Euripides many Greek writers wrote about the Trojan War, there were few that chose to focus on the aftermath and even fewer still that made the women and children their primary plotline. Euripides gives these victims of war a voice in his play, and even modern critics hail his efforts to highlight the atrocities of war on innocents. Divvying up the women like chattels must have sat as uneasily with a Grecian audience as it does today, and the parallels that can be drawn to the modern conflicts of the Rwandan genocide, the Syrian refugee crisis and others, is chilling. The blatant suggestion that the fate of most of these women is in servitude and sexual slavery is a damning reminder that the victims of war are not only those that are slain in the conflict or as Euripides remarks ‘how different it was for our men’, a fitting reminder of the cost of war.

Illusions to conflicts surrounding the Trojan War provide evidence that peace in Ancient Greece is almost unattainable. In addition to Neoptolemus having to leave suddenly because his grandfather Peleus has been ousted from his seat in Phthia, the inbred nature of brutality from characters such Ajax, Odysseus and the deceased Achilles confirms the role of men in war as one of municipal assets being deployed in warfare for the benefit of national leaders.

The Cost of War Quotes

‘This is the crown of my sufferings, my last ordeal: to sail away and leave Troy in flames.’ (Hecabe)

‘What have I to hope for? Come, I have finished with the softness of Troy; lead me to my hard slave’s pallet, my pillow of stone, to dies under the lash of tears.’ (Hecabe)

Duty and Honour

The women, especially Hecabe and Andromache, cling to the ideas of obligation and duty. Both are honourable women who built upright reputations in their respective positions and the authority they possess even after they have been reduced to prisoners of war confirms their command over the Trojan citizens.

Euripides places emphasis on a citizen’s service to their family, friends and country, which continues long after the death of their menfolk at Athenian sword point – ‘what pride of race, what strength once swelled our royal sails!’ There is little mention that the Trojans acted rashly by inviting the Trojan horse into the city gates, and therefore their stupidity deserved the fate they got, but they preferred to place the blame on the gods and exclaim that they have cursed them.

For the women of Troy, there is duty and honour in grieving over the events that have come to pass, and they think nothing of voicing their woe in reaction to the news they receive periodically. Many times throughout the play, Euripides’ notes require Hecabe to ‘collapse[s] to the ground’, unable to withstand the heartache. Despite this, audiences find little fault in the former Queen’s behaviour, sharing the approval of the Chorus who believe she is justified in behaving with such raw emotion and who still defer to her with ‘will they take us now? What have you heard?’, indicating they still see her as their leader.

Hecabe’s duty to the women is conflicted, and often they have to call for her to ‘speak to me [them] Hecabe’; it is at these moments that Hecabe becomes inward and seeks only her own relief. These moments, although few, mirror the behaviour of Helen in the latter part of the play when she sees only to inquire about her own fate – ‘yet I would like to ask, what sentence have you and the Greeks passed on me? Am I to live or die?’, indicative of her selfishness.

Duty and Honour Quote

‘Even in the absence of any traditional social structure, there is an expectation that the women will act in honourable ways, with Talthybius warning both Andromache and Hecabe that acting out against the Greek orders will achieve nothing – “…show yourself a sensible woman, and accept this decision…if you are quiet and accept the inevitable… you will find the Greeks more considerate to yourself.’ (Talthybius)

Fate

Interestingly, it is not until the last remaining lines of the play that Hecabe acknowledges the Trojans have always been fated with ill-luck and pleads with the gods to find another people to exercise their dastardly plans on – ‘all through the years the gods have never purposed any other destiny than this, both for me and for Troy, whom they chose out of all cities for the especial hate.’ Hecabe believes the fate of the city was born from its magnificence and ‘guiltless blood’, and blames the ‘pride of race’ for its downfall.

From the smallest child to the most powerful king, Euripides again and again argues that fortunes are changeable and tragedy indiscriminate. Even the Greek gods, who are capable of influencing events on earth, and who could be expected to act as a moderating force, are emotional and unpredictable in their behaviour (as seen at the start of the play with the interlude between Poseidon and Athene).

The foreshadowing of Troy’s downfall can be seen later as the Chorus remove themselves from the moment and recite how Troy was once sacked by the warrior Heracles who seemed intent on murdering the then King of Troy, Laomedon. They recall the battle, eerily similar to that of the Trojan War where the seafaring enemy landed on the shores and rendered the land a bloodied battlefield – ‘What cry comes from the shores? Seagulls robbed of the young? No! Wives for their husbands, mothers for sons, daughters for aged mothers weep and howl!’ Their disbelief that this kind of fateful tragedy could revisit the blessed city of Ilion (the ancient name for Troy) is inconceivable to them and they question Troy’s hopes in heaven ‘being in vain[ity]’.

Hecabe concurs, calling to Zeus when she sees Menelaus has arrived to claim back his wife, still of the firm belief that Zeus ‘guidest all human affairs to their just end’. Hecabe, like the others on the shores during the aftermath, fluctuates between believing the gods have omnipotent power and can still remedy the future of the Trojan race and existing in a space of utter disbelief – ‘why call on them [gods]? We called before, and they did not listen’.

Fate Quotes

‘O gods!… Gods are treacherous helpers; yet, when our world has collapsed, it seems suitable to call on the gods.’ (Hecabe)

‘For what purpose have we suffered? To give songs to singers of the future? That poets might make plays about us? If the gods now should overturn the earth and engulf us, we should vanish and be forgotten, perhaps that would be better.’ (Hecabe)

Loss

If nothing else, Euripides’ The Women of Troy is a play about loss. The loss of a great war, the loss of many lives, both Grecian and Trojan, and the continual loss experienced by the survivors of war. The main characters feel loss most acutely, with Hecabe vocalising the full brunt of her despair at having seen her strong sons ‘all killed by Greek swords…their father murdered…’ and ‘Troy captured’; her short, sharp sentences and disjointed syntax belying the true grief of the former Queen of Troy. In the first of her passages, Hecabe begins her laments with ‘O my grief’ and ‘how must I deal with my grief’, statements shouted out to the audience to secure their empathy for her. She struggles at times to find words to articulate how she feels and Euripides explores the inadequacy of language to express the deepest of grievances – ‘What words of yours can release pity to match your pain?’ (The Chorus)

Although Hecabe and the other noble women have lost many things in a physical sense, worse is the symbolic loss of their power and position, their former glory now amounting to nothing. They have been brought down low from great heights, and this seems to be what hurts them the most. Through this, Euripides reminds us that the grand ladies of the court are now just as much slaves as the fallen royals are, and that their sorrows are actually very similar in nature.

By comparison, some see their current losses as being far worse than dying. Andromache overtly remarks that she believes Polyxena (Hecabe’s murdered daughter) is more fortunate as ‘…being dead she is happier than I [Andromache] who am left alive’, a belief that is not shared by Hecabe or Cassandra, although the latter seems to look forward to her death, believing it to be glorious and fated. Andromache is of the opinion that losing her status, family and home is a far greater hardship to bear than to die – ‘the dead have no feeling; so evil can bring no pain’. In response, Hecabe does as her station calls her to do, encourages Andromache to abandon all ties she once had to Troy and attempt to forge a new life for herself in the hope of someday being happy again. But the loss of a child and the rightful heir to the Trojan throne is too much to bear for Andromache, and the stoicism we first see in her dissipates as she leaves the shores ‘wept [weeping] aloud’ for her losses.

Andromache’s moving soliloquy is a sad reminder that all those that have lost lives in the war are the sons and daughters of others, and her affection is raw and touching – ‘Now say good-bye to me for the last time; come close to your mother, wind your arms round my neck, and put your lips to mine.’

Even Hecabe’s resolve is put to the test upon seeing her the corpse of her ‘darling [grand] child’ laid before her – an apt reminder that death permeates through a family line and as we are reminded within the play, the stories of those that lost their lives fighting at the walls of Troy will be ‘told with terror’.

Loss Quote

‘Fortune is a false friend; call no man happy until he dies.’ (Hecabe)

Gender

Of the two male characters in the play, one is portrayed as weak and officious (Menelaus), while the other (Talthybius) is represented as sensitive and decent but torn between his chivalrous inclinations and his duty as a soldier. As a Greek herald, Talthybius is a victor and by right could laud over the women. Instead, he behaves gently and with all the kindness that his position allows, exhibiting a protective trait when he keeps the news of Polyxena’s death from Hecabe in order to spare her the grief. He also takes the time to wash Astaynax’s body before delivering him to Hecabe, saving the woman both the trouble and the terrible task before she buries her last remaining grandchild. His admittance to being ‘[nearly] brought to tears’ by Andromache’s wailing aboard the ship challenges the ideal model of Athenian masculinity and defies the notion that grief and emotion only exist in a woman’s world, and contrariwise, that rage and aggression only exist in a masculine sphere.

In contrast to Talthybius, Menelaus arrives on the shores unashamedly to claim back the woman that jilted him and seeks selfish revenge, not for the myriad of deaths she has caused by her actions but to serve his own vain purpose. As a result of this, the concept of his masculinity is put under scrutiny when Hecabe warns him against behaving ‘worthy of yourself [himself]…your race and of your family’ and proving those that ‘called you [him] womanish’ wrong by executing Helen swiftly and justly; associating mercy with a diluted sense of masculinity.

Despite Euripides constructing the hegemonic character of Talthybius to act as a mediator between males and females of the play, the sexual violence alluded to in the play is a sobering constant that would sit uneasily with an audience of today. The suggestion that Helen may have been seized by force and made to return with Paris to the lands of Troy, the accusation from Helen that Paris’ brother Deiphobus ‘taken [took] her by force’ and the violation of Polyxena on the altar of a temple confirms the misogynistic mentality of men at war and questions the morality of soldiers, especially when they are victorious.

In juxtaposition, it seems an important message that Euripides was keen to inject is that of the strength of women when they are disempowered. By portraying Helen as more than just the beautiful legend, told in other mythological retellings, Euripides presents a far more calculating character with ulterior motives that will continue their manipulation if given the chance. Helen’s refusal to admit defeat and her insistence that she is innocent is compounded as she makes attempts to alleviate the burden of guilt and place some on ‘Hecabe’s evil genius’ and the gods for their games.

In contrast, Hecabe’s reasoning and perchance for cross-examination is worthy of admiration given the circumstances, as she constructs an elaborate rebuttal to Helen’s accusations and manages to convince Menelaus of his wife’s malice – ‘your [Hecabe] verdict agrees exactly with mine: that she deserted me for her lover of her own free will. Her talk of Aphrodite is mere invention and pretence’. Moreover, Andromache’s pragmatism and Cassandra’s glee, albeit misplaced is testament to Euripides’ insight into women and how they conduct themselves in moments of turmoil.

Social Class

On the shores on the destroyed city of Troy all of the prisoners are reduced to equality and, aside from the lingering loyalty some of the women have for their aged Queen Hecabe, they are all united in their suffering and loss. Although it is not a primary focus, Euripides chose to be realistic in his depiction of the royalty that, despite their torment, find time to comment on their social fall. Both Andromache and Cassandra comment on the deterioration of the class system; Cassandra when she acknowledges her sentence being delivered by an ‘ignorant servant’, touting her snobbery at heralds, naming them ‘creatures universally loathed, lackeys and menials of courts and governments!’ and Andromache when she observes ‘everything is turned upside down: royalty enslaved’. This elitism is somewhat forgivable when we consider that these women have been raised as royals, spending their lives in power and privilege, but in spite of this Euripides condemns their shallow ways by examining their priorities when searching for a good match – ‘Dearest Hector! You had all that I could ask for in a husband: wisdom, birth, wealth, and manliness, all in abundance.’

To conclude this concept, Hecabe, in a strange prophetic warning to the audience concludes that it is a ‘fool’ that ‘feels solid satisfaction at what he calls his established position in life’; condemning Troy, who once ‘drew the breath of pride and your [Troy’s] name was glorious…’ to a city that will ‘vanish’ along with its royal line.

Social Class Quotes

‘No queen’s bed for me now: I shall lay my shrivelled body to rest on the floor, and wear faded, worn rags to match my skin and mock my royalty.’ (Hecabe)

‘Now comes the last crowning agony, in my old age to go to Hellas as a slave! They will set me tasks to dishonour my grey head – answering the door, keeping the keys, making bread: me, the mother of Hector!’ (Hecabe)