2001 Season - Genesius Guild

Euripides: "The Trojan Women " July 14, 15, 21, 22

"In the first year of the ninety-first Olympiad (415 B.C.E.) Xenocles and Euripides competed against each other. Xenocles, whoever he may have been, won first prize with Oedipus, Lycaon, Bacchae, and Athamas (a satyr-play). Euripides was second with Alexander, Palamedes, The Trojan Women, and Sisyphus (a satyr-play)" - from Aelian's Varia historica (circa 220 C.E.)

The Plot
The play begins with the God of the Ocean, Poseidon, telling of the destruction of Troy, a city he helped found and protect, by the Greek army, aided by Zeus and other Olympian gods.

Athena, who assisted the Greeks in their conquest, appears and asks for Poseidon's aid in punishing the Greeks. In their wholesale destruction of Troy, they violated her temple and Ajax the Lesser raped Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam and Athena's priestess in front of the altar.

Poseidon joyfully agrees to plague the Greeks as they try to return home. (Odysseus' ten-year trip home is told in "the Odyssey")

Hecuba, wife of the murdered King Priam, has lain in front of her tent during the above exchange. She rises and begins to speak of her sufferings. A chorus of Trojan women, also captives, enters. They tell of Troy's sufferings and the fate which awaits them as Greek slaves and concubines.

The Greek Herald, Talthybius, enters to assign the women to their captors.

Cassandra comes from the tent, bearing a torch, half-maddened after her rape. She foretells sorrow for the Greeks, including the murder of Agamemnon and Odysseus' wanderings, but it is her fate never to be believed. She leaves with Talthybius to be Agamemnon's concubine.

After a speech by Hecuba, the chorus tells of the Trojan Horse.

A wagon comes onstage, bearing Astyanax, Hector's small son, and accompanied by Hector's widow, Andromache. Hecuba learns that her daughter, Polyxena, has been sacrificed on the tomb of Achilles.

Talthybius re-enters to claim Astyanax, who is to be thrown from the walls of Troy. The Greeks fear what he might do if permitted to live.
Anmdromache bids her son a tearful farewell as the soldiers take him away.

After a choral ode, Menelaus enter to re-claim Helen, whose abduction started the war. Hecuba urges Menelaus to kill Helen, but when she is brought before him, Menelaus relents and takes her back as his wife.

After another choral ode, soldiers bring the body of Astyanax in on a shield. In one of the play's most celebrated moments, Hecuba bids farewell to her grandson.

The chorus helps prepare the boy's body for burial. Talthybius returns and orders the women to board the Greek ships to be taken to their new masters.

The Cast
Masked characters: Poseidon, God of the Ocean
Athena, protector-goddess of Athens
Hecuba, widowed wife of King Priam of Troy
Talthybius, Herald of the Greek army
Cassandra, Hecuba's daughter, a priestess
Andromache, widow of Hector, son of Hecuba
Astyanax, her young son
Menelaus, King of Argos and a general of the Greek army
Helen, his wife, whose abduction caused the Trojan War
Chorus: 15 Trojan women, captured by the Greeks in the sack of Troy.
Greek soldiers (non-speaking roles)