About the work
Tragedy by Euripides, first performed in 415 BC at the City Dionysia in Athens as the third part of a trilogy on the Trojan War, following the lost plays 'Alexandros' and 'Palamedes'. It was written only a year after Athens had destroyed the neutral island of Melos, a parallel many scholars see reflected in the play.
Plot
After the fall of Troy, the surviving women gather around the aged queen Hecuba in the ruined camp, awaiting distribution as slaves to the victorious Greeks. Cassandra is given to Agamemnon and Andromache to Achilles' son; her small son Astyanax is thrown from the walls for fear he might one day avenge his father. Helen narrowly escapes the vengeance of her husband Menelaus.
Cultural significance
The play is regarded as one of world literature's most searing indictments of war, even though it won only second prize at the 415 BC competition. Jean-Paul Sartre's 1965 adaptation and numerous later stagings have kept it alive as an anti-war statement.