A well-chosen collection of three plays set in the aftermath of the Trojan war, focusing on the women victims of the war. Hecuba is portrayed as a defeated, passive victim in ‘The Trojan Women’; in the eponymous ‘Hecuba’, even though a prisoner of war in Agamemnon’s camp, she takes an active, grisly, and highly effective revenge against a false friend. I enjoyed ‘Andromache’ particularly, although it seems the least “well made” from a modern point of view: perhaps some of the ancient cultural re...

Ever see those newsreels of the last days for U.S. forces in Vietnam? Evacuating some of the local citizens who had helped us, but, without enough room for them all, leaving some behind to fend for themselves at the hands of the Viet Cong. Horrible stuff. That's what The Trojan Women reminded me of; all the last horrible details at the end of a war, seen from the losing side. Hecuba, queen of Troy, suddenly widowed, now facing a life of slavery to the Greeks and the unpleasant futures of her chi...

HECUBA. Yet if god had not turnedthe world upside down, we would vanishinto obscurity. We would never havegiven men to come the inspiration to singof us in their song.interesting collection, with plays that obviously complement one another well. a lot of misery and a surprising number of argumentative speeches. this translation is fairly straightforward in that it reads in a very literal manner and has a lot of explanatory notes including in places where a greek word with certain connotations ha...

Of the three plays, I'd say Andromache was my favorite. Very good plays- fulfills the reader's/audience's craving for tragedy, but also introduces the power and manipulation of women.

Uni Read!

Having recently re-read Aeschylus' Agamemnon, it is hard for me to judge Euripides on his own terms. These, however, are not his strongest works. All three plays repeat the common Greek wisdom that one must not count a man as fortunate until his death, and demonstrate this incessantly – which is fine, but they are not equally successful at making it interesting.Hecuba is the best of the three, for me. The plot structure is more traditional, as well as the themes of loyalty, betrayal and revenge....

I hadn't read any Euripides since a college classics course. Of the three major Greek dramatists, I never really liked Aeschylus and didn't read too much Euripides. Everyone focused on Sophocles, who was very good. But, having read this recent translation, Euripides has rocketed up into first place among these three (even though he won the fewest competitions when he was alive).If I had to list these plays in order of my favorites, it would be Andromache, then Hecuba, then closely followed by Th...

It is rather hard to believe that these plays were written over 2,400 years ago. They are easy to read and comprehend and are, in fact, very absorbing and captivating. I guess that is why they are still read a couple thousand years after they were written! The plays are all tragedies and pertain to the Trojan War and it's aftermath, which took place hundreds of years prior to the plays being written (if the war actually did occur). They all feature strong and forceful yet tragic female character...

One of the notes in this edition says that Odysseus and his talent for deceit are usually viewed unfavourably in Greek tragedy, compared to in Homer; and that this would have been very pronounced in The Trojan Women, as it was performed right after the now-lost play Palamedes, in which Odysseus took a villainous role. Of the three plays in this volume, he only actually appears onstage in Hecuba. And even then, it's only for a couple of minutes, to deliver a speech and be vaguely duplicitous. Whi...

I had the pleasure of seeing a performance of The Trojan Women at the ancient Odeon (built in the second century AD) in July 2017. The play was slightly modernised, but still very much Euripides. Trojan Women is a very powerful play about the aftermath of the Trojan War, or - to put it more precisely - what happened to Hecuba (formerly queen of Tory), Cassandra (her daughter), Andromache (daughter-in-law of Hecuba) and Helena (wife of Menelaos). It is a timeless play. You might even call it an a...

Hecuba: 3.5⭐️Trojan women: 4 ⭐️Andromache: 3.5 ⭐️

Lovely.

i need to reread andromache one day but on less caffeine because right now i can't decide whether it was very very good or was i just experiencing shrimp emotions.

Hecuba and The Trojan Women were excellent reflections on the end of the Trojan war from two different perspectives, but from the same character: Hecuba.

Amazingly good.

Cassandra, on being dragged away to Agamemnon: (Do not cry for me, mother.) "I shall come among the dead as a victor. I shall have laid waste the house of the sons of Atreus, the men who destroyed us."

A great collection.

"Ten years - ten times the seed was sown before Troy fell,perished beneath Greek spears. A desert now where homes were. Blood drips down from the holy shrines. While to the Greek ships pass the Trojan treasure, gold, gold in masses, armour, clothing stripped from the dead. Oh fools! The men who lay a city waste, so soon to die themselves." After typing the above ,I KNOW that once finished, I will be unable to restrain myself from going right back to the start and reading it ALL again.A play wi

I have been without internet for a while, so I have three reviews to write! I'll start here because I finished this the most recently. This is the first collection of plays I've read all year. My taste in plays is very strong. I either love a play, or I hate it. The group of plays I love is very small. That group includes many of Euripides' plays. While I was in high school and college I had to read the three classic Greek playwrights: Sophocles, Aeschylus, and Euripides. While I hated the firs

This (Oxford World's Classics) is a terrible edition of Euripides' three plays about the women of Troy. Norwood's translations are terribly boring, wringing all the life out of these exciting plays. There are also some confusing mistranslations, as when he has Odysseus warn Hecuba not to treat friends as friends (it should be friends as NO friends, as in Vellacott). He also translates much of the poetry as prose. Moreover the text is absurdly and distractingly overannotated (there are as many as...

An excellent read that gives insight to the female perspective concerning the humanistic outcomes of war in Ancient Greece. It's been quite a few years since I've studied the Iliad in high school (now I'm considering a reread of the epic poem) but Greek tragedies have always fascinated me ever since I read the Odyssey and Metamorphoses. My favorite of the plays is Andromache and her conflict with Hermione. Because it not only highlighted the post-war strife of the conquerors but also the "victor...

Off the top of my head I know I have read at least "The Trojan Women" which was different from other tragedies, partially because it was mostly about women and not men. It also offers news of what happened (fictionally) after the war. Cassandra's role made me laugh, though she was mad. Most importantly, DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE. I watched it for class after reading the story and the movie was just annoying. Actually having to listen to women go through "woe is me" instead of just reading it is awf...

Full disclosure: I had to skim a good portion of the dialogue in each of these plays in order to not give up out of boredom. I think that a focus on monologues and having very little action was the style back in ancient Greece, but it does not translate well to modern America (my attention span is nil! entertain me!). The strongest feelings I had when reading these plays was when I stepped back and considered on my own what the characters were going through; I did not find the dialogue to be all...

For what it's worth, Euripides could've been a lot nicer to my gal pal Helen. I mean, what is up with that? I suppose that's nothing short of ordinary given the times. Even if Euripides is argued to be a pioneer, a forefront to the defence of women. But damn. Hecuba and Andromache though. I knew they had it rough, but damn. I can understand why a tyrant might weep at their sorrows. It's been a pleasure Euripides. Let's not meet again for a while ok? We've had a good run over my three years at un...

I previously read Euripides "Medea and Other Plays," an old penguin. I found the story line hard to follow.This edition of "Trojan Women and Others" had excellent explanatory notes which helped me understanding the plot and the language.Loved it!I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys classic literature and emotive themes, especially if you have a working knowledge of the Trojan war and/or have read Homer.

"You're giddy at your own calamities,Brightly singing what your song keeps dark."-Chorus Leader, in Euripides' Trojan Women.This quote basically sums up Euripides' poetics...tragedy rendered in giddy verse. These are fantastic translations of the plays by established poets and scholars. Oxford University Press has set a high standard here and given readers of Greek Tragedy a true gift.

Women and children art the true casualties of war and bare the burden of determing if the battle continues. Though circumstances beyound our control bring about challenges and troubles, the measure of our character is determined by how we meet those curcumstances.

(Trojan Women only)

The suffering and bleakness of these plays is unparalleled, but the internalised misogyny of the women characters is hard to stomach sometimes, particularly in Andromache.