Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 February 2012
The penultimate scene of Euripides' Troades, lines 1123–1250, presents the dressing of a child's corpse for burial. Even as the body is being carried away for interment, firebrands are seen on the heights of Troy (1256–9). All that remains is the commencement of the final burning of the city while the remaining Trojan captives are ordered off for embarkation and exile. The end of the play, therefore, enacts the annihilation of a city and its total abandonment; in such a context the funeral which immediately precedes surely makes a crucial contribution to the significance of the play and deserves close study.