Book
The Trojan Women and Other Plays
First published 2001
The Trojan Women and Other Plays gathers Euripidean tragedies that view the Trojan War through defeated families rather than triumphant warriors. Hecuba, Cassandra, Andromache and other survivors face enslavement, forced marriage and the destruction of households after Troy has fallen, exposing the violence that continues after formal victory.
In Hecuba, the former queen endures the sacrifice of Polyxena and the murder of Polydorus before taking revenge on the Thracian king who betrayed her family. The Trojan Women follows the allocation of Trojan captives and the killing of Astyanax, while Andromache examines the precarious life of Hector’s widow in Greece. Together the plays make conquest, displacement and revenge their central subjects.
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