Euripides’ Trojan Women depicts the aftermath of the fall of Troy, in which members of the Trojan royal family are sent into slavery, and Astyanax, the son of Hector and Andromache, is thrown to his death from the battlements of Troy. It was frequently performed in the last century as an anti-war play, and this practice continues into our century. It is often maintained that the play, produced in 415 B.C., was intended to reproach the Athenians for their brutal assault on the neutral island of Melos the previous year (for the history see Thucydides 5.84-116). The island was starved into submission, and all its adult males were massacred and its women and children sold into slavery. On such a view the play is a pièce à clef<…
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Citation: Kovacs, David. "Troades". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 August 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13363, accessed 24 November 2024.]
