#The Trojan Women

[kebriones]

You were lying to me, when you'd jump on my bed and say "When you die, grandma, I will cut my hair for you, and bring all my friends to sing at your grave."

[distant-screaming]

I keep thinking about euripides' play 'women of troy' and epic the musical. odysseus, planning the trojan horse, leaving the women and children alive, being forced to kill hector's son, seeing helen and feeling a sense of overwhelming... exhaustion. this whole war fought for her, and all helen says is 'the gods made me do it'. and hecabe screams and mourns and pleads for helen to be punished even as she's being taken away as a slave and. odysseus can't help but see penelope in hecabe and helen and andromache and cassandra. and he just. he didn't start this war, he wanted no part in it, but he has prisoners on his ship and now he's going home with them. (they don't make it, of course. none of them do. except odysseus.)

[sawmeinagallery-iwastheart]

I’m a woman written by a man, but the man was Euripides

[libraryleopard]

read the trojan women by euripides. i'm sad now 👍

don't have a lot of academic thoughts since i just read it own my own but i thought the way it engaged with a sort of…intertexuality, is that the right word? was interesting. menelaus says that he'll kill helen but anyone who's read the odyssey knows that she lives, cassandra correctly predicting the events of the oresteia even even though everyone else thinks she's mad, etc. also i thought hecuba and helen's argument about whether helen was a traitor or a victim was interesting.

[peggy-sue-reads-a-book]

I hope Helen and Cassandra scissored.

[secretceremonials]

- just a girl x the women of the trojan war

[residentmiddlechild]

Cassandra by ABBA // Fire of Troy by Kerstiaen de Keuninck // Cassandra by ABBA // Cassandra by Frederick Sandys // Cassandra by ABBA // Ajax and Cassandra, Solomon J. Solomon // Ajax and Cassandra, Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein // Cassandra by ABBA // Cassandra’s Lament by Unknown // Cassandra by ABBA 

[perhapsitisthegreatergrief]

i think one of the things that makes anne carson and rosanna bruno's the trojan women: a comic so powerful is the way the dialogue is drawn.

it's full-page panels with interweaving dialogue boxes that you have to carefully track to be able to know who's speaking. the voices blend together, especially when it's hecuba and andromache talking. when we lose track of which dialogue belongs to who, we are reminded that they could be anyone who has been affected by war— they are anyone's grieving relative, they are anyone who has watched their entire life be destroyed before their eyes. really gets the point across that this interpretation of the play is meant as a timeless representation of the way war affects people.

[falsenote]

The Trojan Women (1971)

[thetudorslovers]

Sometimes, Helen would go into the inner room even before I left and then I’d hear the chattering of the loom, the rattle as the shuttle flew to and fro. There was a legend—it tells you everything, really—that whenever Helen cut a thread in her weaving, a man died on the battlefield. She was responsible for every death. And then, one day, she showed me her work. I’ve known some great weavers in my life, including some of the women in the camp. The seven girls Achilles captured when he took Lesbos—they were brilliant, no other word for it, they were brilliant. But even they weren’t as good as Helen. I wandered round the room looking at the tapestries while Helen sat at the loom and sipped her wine. Half a dozen huge battle scenes covered the walls, a sequence that taken together told the whole story of the war so far. Hand-to-hand combat, men decapitated, gutted, skewered, filleted, disembowelled; and, riding high above the carnage in their glittering chariots, the kings: Menelaus, Agamemnon, Odysseus, Diomedes, Idomeneo, Ajax, Nestor.

I knew Menelaus had been her husband, before she ran away with Paris, but her voice didn’t change when she said his name. Did she point to Achilles that day? I think she must’ve done, but I really don’t remember. The Trojans were there too, of course, Priam looking down from the battlements, and below him, on the battlefield, his eldest son, Hector, defending the gates. No Paris, though. Paris seemed to be fighting the war from his bed. On the rare occasions I saw them together, it was obvious even to a child that Helen preferred Hector to Paris, whom I think she’d grown to despise. His reluctance to go anywhere near the battlefield was notorious, as was Hector’s contempt for his brother’s cowardice. When I’d finished walking round the tapestries, I went round again because I wanted to check something I didn’t understand.

“She’s not there,” I said to my sister that night after dinner. “She’s not in the tapestries. Priam’s there—but she isn’t.”

“No, well, of course she isn’t. She won’t know where to put herself till she knows who’s won.”

[readinthedarkpod]

We're a movie podcast now.

B: The end of the film ends on Irene Papas's face. And so in this moment she's Clytemnestra, she knows of the big, like, terrible lie and crime that her husband has committed by sacrificing their daughter. And it is like, by far, the best moment of acting ever. Because you can see on her whole face that she's planning Agamemnon's murder when he returns home from the war ten years later.

Iphigenia (1977) dir. Michael Cacoyannis

Click here to find out where you can listen to the full episode (spoiler alert: anywhere podcasts are!)

[epigonoi]

Kassandra

1. the fruits by paris paloma / 2. cassandra by frederick sandys / 3. pray by the amazing devil / 4. cassandra imploring athena for revenge against ajax by jérôme martin langlois / 5. ptolemaea by ethel cain / 6. trojan women (euripides) trans. e.p. coleridge

[do-you-know-this-play]

[vague-mintyboy]

Reading Euripides’ Trojan Women is super interesting. You always see that post about the Golden Apple myth— “Why would Hera or Athena care about beauty?”

Euripides literally was like: SAME! This story is stupid

[mayhapsyourmom]

This book is better then song of Achilles

[blueheartbooks]

"Echoes of Tragedy: Euripides' The Trojan Women through Gilbert Murray's Lens"

In the haunting corridors of ancient Greek tragedy, Euripides' "The Trojan Women" stands as a timeless testament to the ravages of war and the indomitable strength of the human spirit. Translated with eloquence and emotional resonance by Gilbert Murray, this rendition breathes life into the poignant narrative of women grappling with the aftermath of the Trojan War.

Murray's translation is a delicate dance between preserving the essence of Euripides' verses and making them accessible to a modern audience. The language is both lyrical and evocative, capturing the profound grief, resilience, and defiance of the Trojan women as they confront the ruins of their once-mighty city. The translator's mastery lies not only in his linguistic prowess but in his ability to convey the visceral emotions embedded in the original text.

"The Trojan Women" unfolds as a lamentation, an anguished chorus of voices mourning the fates thrust upon them by the capricious whims of war. Through Murray's lens, the stark realities faced by Hecuba, Andromache, and Cassandra resonate with a rawness that transcends centuries. The translator weaves tragedy into every line, inviting readers to bear witness to the harrowing consequences of conflict.

Murray's understanding of Greek drama shines through in his meticulous attention to the nuances of each character. Hecuba's regal sorrow, Andromache's maternal grief, and Cassandra's prophetic agony are not just words on a page; they are profound expressions of the human condition. The translator's choice of language creates a symphony of voices, harmonizing the individual sorrows into a collective elegy for a fallen city.

The enduring power of "The Trojan Women" lies not only in its exploration of the consequences of war but in its ability to transcend its historical context. Gilbert Murray's translation serves as a bridge between ancient and modern, inviting readers to witness the universality of human suffering and resilience. As the final echoes of Troy's tragedy reverberate through the pages, Murray ensures that Euripides' masterpiece retains its relevance and emotional potency for generations to come.

Euripides' "The Trojan Women" Translated by Gilbert Murray is available in Amazon in paperback 10.99$ and hardcover 18.99$ editions.

Number of pages: 142

Language: English

Rating: 8/10                                           

Link of the book!

Review By: King's Cat