The Trojan Women

The Trojan Women also translated as The Women of Troy and also known by its transliterated Greek title Troades is a tragedy by the Greek playwright Euripides. Produced in 415 BC during the Peloponnesian War it is often considered a commentary on the capture of the Aegean island of Melos and the subsequent slaughter and subjugation of its populace by the Athenians earlier that year (see History of Milos). 415 BC was also the year of the scandalous desecration of the hermai and the launch of the Athenians second expedition to Sicily events which may also have influenced the author. The Trojan Women was the third tragedy of a trilogy dealing with the Trojan War. The first tragedy Alexandros was about the recognition of the Trojan prince Paris who had been abandoned in infancy by his parents and rediscovered in adulthood. The second tragedy Palamedes dealt with Greek mistreatment of their fellow Greek Palamedes. This trilogy was presented at the Dionysia along with the comedic satyr play Sisyphos. The plots of this trilogy were not connected in the way that Aeschylus Oresteia was connected. Euripides did not favor such connected trilogies.