“The Trojan Women” by Euripides

(Summer 2001)

Premiered on Nikopoleian 2001.

It is perhaps the most popular ancient Greek tragedy throughout time, but also internationally in modern times, since the issues it touches on have not ceased to concern people from 415 B.C. when it was first presented, until today.

It is a work-denunciation, indirectly but clearly, of the great tragic poet for the extermination of the population of the unsubdued Milos by the Athenians in 416 BC.

This tragedy refers to the history of the complete conquest of Troy and the humiliations suffered by its women by the Achaeans against the backdrop of the ruins of their city.

Queen Hecuba, who lost her husband and her sons, and during the play she will learn that she will also lose her grandson.

Andromache who is told to follow Neoptolemus, the murderer of her husband, and Cassandra, who here prophesies the tragic future of Agamemnon, whom she is forced to follow.

All of these are the protagonists of this multi-layered and heartbreaking tragedy that reflects the great human shame and humiliation or disgrace in every era, including ours, in which wars have not stopped.

The ten-year Trojan War has ended and the captive women of Troy are mourning the fall of the city. Hecuba is among them, awaiting the announcement of her own fate and at the same time facing repeated calamities: Polyxena is killed at the tomb of Achilles and Andromache learns of the Achaeans' decision to kill her young son, Astyanax, and so much more.