LLT 180-1                                                                                                       Name:

SP10

10 points

The Trojan Woman

Discussion Questions

 Setting?  Time and Place?

Prologue: opening monologue by Poseidon.

What is Poseidon's sentiment toward the Trojan Women?

Why is he leaving?

Who does Poseidon ultimately blame for the fall of Troy?

First Episode: Athena and Poseidon

Why is Athena angry with the Greek army?

What are her intentions?

What does Poseidon agree to do?

Euripides plays on the falsity of hope in a reality of despair. Hope it seems is a useless, even bitter, thing. The historian Thucydides (a contemporary of Euripides) argues that "hope" is a false or empty vessel. It is foolish and even dangerous. Under what circumstance would hope be foolish or dangerous?

Second Episode Hecuba and the Chorus of Trojan Women

In Hecuba’s speech, she bemoans her fall from Trojan royalty to Greek slavery.  What sustains Hebuca?

Who does Hecuba ultimately blame for her current plight?

Enter the Chorus of Trojan Women.The Trojan women are lamenting their departure from their homeland and into slavery, yet they dare to hope.  What is their source of hope?

Talthybius enters.  The Trojan Women learn their fates.

Cassandra has been allotted to whom?

Andromache?

Polyxena?

Hecuba herself?

Third Episode Cassandra’s entrance.

Describe Cassandra’s state of mind as she enters this group of sorrowful women.

What is Cassandra's plan?

Describe Cassandra's character, her recent predicaments, and her "gift."

In this scene, Cassandra's perspective is significant in many ways.

According to Cassandra, in what ways did the Greeks lose, even though they won the Trojan War?

In what ways did the Trojans win, even though they lost the war?

What predictions does Cassandra make about Odysseus?   

Fourth Episode  Andromache and Astyanax enter.

Andromache feels as though her fate is doubly cursed among the Trojan Women, why?

Andromache states that she lacks the one thing that the other captive women have, which is?

Hecuba has never sailed on a ship. Yet she imagines the situation that sailors face on stormy seas as an analogy for her dire situation. What is the point of her analogy with regard to Andromache’s future?

What news does Talthybius, the herald, bring to Andromache?

Which Achaean (Greek) chief proposes this course of action? Why?

How does Talthybius tell Andromache to behave in the face of this situation?

What will she gain?

Fifth Episode Enter Menelaus: 

Menelaus has come to stake claim to Helen.  Out of his love for her?

Menelaus shares his intentions with Hecuba.  What does Menelaus intend to do with Helen?

What is Hecuba's response?

Enter Helen:

Helen begs Menelaus for a chance to speak.  She begins by placing the blame of the entire war at whose feet, and why?

What further arguments does Helen propose to prove her innocence?

How does Hecuba refute Helen’s arguments?

Why doesn't Hecuba want Menelaus to return to Sparta on the same ship as Helen?

In the end, Menelaus speaks about chastity and Helen’s fate, which is?

Exit Menelaus dragging Helen with him.

Sixth Episode:

Talthybius enters with Hector’s shield.

Why is Andromache not present?

 
What task falls heavily to Hecuba?

The play ends with the warriors escorting the women to the ships and into slavery in a foreign land. As we know, Hecuba is to be the slave of Odysseus. Yet we also know -- from Cassandra's prophecy and Homer's Odyssey -- that Odysseus returns home alone, ten years later, to face a new challenge, the brazen suitors of his wife Penelope. So what happened to Hecuba?  (Google it!)

Define the term: fatalism

Fatalism is often associated with the worldviews of the ancient Greco-Roman peoples.  What arguments could be made that there exist “heroic” qualities in a fatalistic perspective?  Or, argue that there are no “heroic” qualities to be found in a fatalistic approach to life.

In your opinion, who represented the most “heroic” figure in this tragedy?  Defend your answer.