Cacoyannis 'Stereotypes In Euripides Trojan Women'

‘…rob me of the sight of my home.’ Her constant mourning over the loss of her ‘home’ in Troy antagonises the male Achaean army that are said to have destroyed it. This places Hecuba and her daughters distant from the reach of power, and the masculine-dominant outside world. 'Home' could also connote to the idea of a woman’s place in a patriarchal society; thereby, according to Ancient expectation, promotes the notion of a ‘house wife’. The plot of Trojan Women is thus seen as a tale that ponders over ‘the troubles of being a female’, and displays a positive and innocent insight into

Helen of Sparta’s portrayals in many different accounts of mythology and history are extremely dissimilar. Helen was said to be the daughter of Zeus and Leda (Queen of Sparta), and was the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Helen was abducted by Paris of Troy and when Menelaus came to retrieve Helen, the Trojan war began. In “The Odyssey”, Helen is shown as living happily with Menelaus after he brought her back from Sparta. She is portrayed as an intelligent person who sees things for what they truly are, but is mostly reserved to wifely duties. In “Trojan Women” by Euripides, Helen is shown as a person who was used by the gods as a reward for Paris with nothing else in mind. However, she fights vehemently for her own innocence in the

The representation of Helen in Homer’s work and with how she is depicted in Euripides Women of Troy enables the reader to understand different perspectives of Helen’s personality seen throughout both texts. Furthermore, these comparative methods in both texts will raise questions and awareness to the depiction of Helen. In this essay, I will explore the perspective of how Euripides displays a harsher judgement of Helen than in Homer’s text.

The chorus during one of their observations blames the Trojan War on Helen, the most beautiful women of all the land who was whisked away by Paris of Greece. "He had skill in the swordplay, He went down so tall in the onslaught, All for another's women" page 119. The chorus was talking about the men of Greece sent to go to war. Explaining that the men may have fought a good battle

In Homer’s work, the Trojan War is fought not for conquest or wealth but for the honor of the Spartan king Menelaus after he had his wife taken by Paris of Troy. In the eyes of the Greeks, this was a slight on his honor worthy of war. Early on in the work, Helen despairs at being the cause of the war. She laments

Furthermore, throughout the play, words in different languages such as “la guerra” are used by the chorus of the Trojan women, which could represent the applicability of the grief and suffering that occurs after the Trojan War, to all wars on a global and timeless level. In The Trojan Women, Euripides emphasizes Homer’s underlying criticism of war, present in The Iliad, and the play highlights the senselessness and absurdity of war. For example, Hecuba and the chorus of women speak about how pointless it was that the Greeks fought in Troy for ten years, just because of Helen, while their children grew up without fathers. The absurd brutality of the war is highlighted when the Greek soldier (presumably Achilleus’ son) throws Astyanax down the walls of Troy and afterwards brings the dead baby, drenched in blood, back to the women of Troy, as

In “The Trojan Women,” there are four enduring women who dominate the play and only two men who say anything at all. Moving us with their rants and dramatic reactions, these women engulf the audience in overwhelming grief and irresistible pride. Euripides emphasizes these four women to help us understand one of his main themes. Hecuba with her pride, Cassandra with her virginity and uncanny wisdom, Andromache with her misery and heartache, and Helen with her powerful, seductive reasoning all represent superior illustrations of feminism throughout the play.

Based on the literary evidence and subject matter presented in this research paper on civil rights, sex &birth, marriage, domestic roles, children & education, death &burial, religious proceedings and slaves &prostitutes allows us to determine whether or not a history of women in Athenian society is possible?

Art and literature have been strongly impacted by Greek Mythology. They used to explain things that they did not understand or used to teach life lessons.The most beautiful woman in Troy was Helen. Helen hasn’t been seen by anyone today, but we still imagine what she looks like. Helen has a mystic power to attract men wherever she went. She had suitors follow her everywhere and harassed her. There where thousands of men out for her hand in marriage among these she picked Menelaus. When Menelaus was away she fled to Troy with Paris. Paris got killed for fleeing and she indirectly started the Trojan War. Helen married his brother Deiphobus who she betrayed for Menelaus after troy was captured. The lesson of this story is to be loyal to people or bad things will

While many accounts of the Trojan War differ, the motivation that drove the war remains the same by all accounts, the beauty of Helen of Troy. The Trojan War is proclaimed to be a mission to rescue the most beautiful woman on earth. Being a woman myself, I am very aware of the influential role that a woman plays in a man’s way of thinking and behaving. Can beauty alone be the driving force to sail 1000 ships in its pursuit, 10,000 soldiers in its conquest, and engage in a 10 year long war in its honor? Certainly! Love can sometimes cause one to commit unimaginable acts, but something tells me that the motivation behind the Trojan War is deep rooted. It goes far beyond beauty, right into the hearts of anger and greed.

Helen has mixed feelings because she feels some complicity in her own abduction and realizes how much death and suffering has been the result. That her Trojan husband is not terribly manly compared with his brother or her first husband only increases her feelings of regret. However, it is not clear that Helen had any choice. She is, after all, a possession; one of many Paris stole from Argos, although the only one he is unwilling to return (7.362-64). Helen 's fault lies in her beauty rather than in her acts, according to the old men at the Scaean Gate (3.158).

The 2004 movie Troy is an attempt by Wolfgang Peterson to bring an adaptation of “The Iliad” to the silver screen. It portrays the epic Trojan war between the ancient kingdoms of Troy and Sparta. The Trojan prince Paris falls deeply in love with Helen, Menelaus’s wife, and takes her back to Troy. The “abduction” of Helen infuriated Menelaus. Consequently, Agamemnon used his brother's acrimony to declare war against Troy.

Euripides’s tragedy play The Trojan Women took place in the now destroyed and mutilated city of Troy, after the mythological Trojan War and the historical Peloponnesian War. This play was the last of a trilogy that Euripides wrote concerning the events of the leading up to Trojan War, the war itself, and the aftermath . The two leading Greek city states at the time, Athens and Sparta, are the ones who are involved in the almost three decades of conflict, leaving the Greek sphere in pieces and cities destroyed and Athens was left bankrupt, exhausted of all resources, and demoralized from losing much of everything . The main causes of this war began with the Spartans fear of Athens growing power and prosperity to build bigger and better naval ships, and the construction of massive buildings and the construction of the Long Wall that outlined their territories . The Trojan Women focused on the captured women of Athens’s point of view of the aftermath of the war and how they portrayed the Spartan soldiers as barbarians instead of heroic beings like they are in The Odyssey or The Iliad . Throughout Euripides’s The Trojan Women, he came across a circumstance that occurred in order to make his main points in the play about the horrors of war, Greek’s relationships with the Greek Gods, and the role of women in Greek society.

Andromache vengefully curses Helen, calling her an “evil incarnate, a curse on both barbarians and Greeks” and one whose “beautiful eyes brought ugly destruction to the noble fields of Phrygia” (Euripides. TTW.781-783). As a female, soon to be slave of Greek enemy forces, she knows she can do no more than curse; at this point in the time, she must accept a fate of servitude or death.

While many accounts of the Trojan war vary by author, the motivation that drove the war remains the same by all accounts, which was the beauty of Helen Of Troy. The Trojan war is proclaimed to have been a mission to rescue the most beautiful woman on earth. Being a woman myself I am very aware of the influence that a woman can have on a man’s way of thinking and behaving but can beauty alone be the thriving force to sail 1000 ships in its pursuit, 10,000 soldiers in its conquest, and engage in a 10 year long war in its honor? Love can sometimes cause you to commit acts outside of your character but something tells me that the motivation for the Trojan war went far beyond beauty, right into the hearts of anger and greed.