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The Helen Scene in Euripides' Troades

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Michael Lloyd
Michael Lloyd
Affiliation:
Wadham College, Oxford
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Extract

Troades has often been thought to lack any coherent structure, and this has been variously attributed to its being the last play of the trilogy and to Euripides' overriding concern to impress the horrors of war upon his fellow Athenians. More recently, however, attention has been drawn to how the constant presence of Hecuba gives unity to the play and to how it is articulated by the striking entries of Cassandra, Andromache, and Helen. Cassandra and Andromache enter in mock triumph, Cassandra waving torches in her ironical wedding song and Andromache on a waggon, while Helen is dragged out by force and her scene marked off by Menelaus' second prologue. All three women emerge from the tent, argue with Hecuba but fail to convince her, and depart for marriage in Greece. Andromache's ideal marriage to Hector (645–56) contrasts with Cassandra's perverted ‘marriage’ to Agamemnon and with Helen's destructive marriage to Paris. The departure of the Trojan women for marriage in Greece balances Helen's earlier departure from Greece for marriage in Troy.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , December 1984 , pp. 303 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1984

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References

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36 Scodel, , op. cit. p. 144Google Scholar wants to delete 998–1001, but without sufficient reason: she objects to ⋯νωλóλυξαϲ (1000) being used of a cry for help, but óλολυλ⋯ is used in just this sense at Thuc. 2. 4. 1. On the βοή cf. Schulze, W., Kl. Schr. pp. 160 ffGoogle Scholar.

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