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The Women of Troy Flashcards

1
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Negative emotions represent water and they are consuming.

A

“the gods have drowned me in an ocean of misery” (34)- Andromache

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2
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Andromache describes her baby.

A

“my sweet baby, so tender in my arms” (36)- Andromache

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3
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: The lament of wives grieving for their male counterparts.

A

“wives for their husbands screaming, for their dead sons” (39)- Chorus

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4
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: The women feel numb in their emotions.

A

“there is no agony we don’t already feel, no abyss of pain to discover” (38)- Chorus

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5
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Andromache describes the baby’s death.

A

“my little darling… what a wretched, meaningless death” (53)- Andromache

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6
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Hecuba describes Astyanax’s hair reduced to nothing.

A

“these beautiful curls… torn out, shorn to stubble” (53)- Hecuba

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7
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Hecuba describes Astyanax’s body.

A

“such a tender corpse” (53)- Hecuba

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8
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation:

A

“on my rack of pain” (9)- Hecuba

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9
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Hecuba compares herself to a bird.

A

“like the mother bird at her plundered nest” (10)- Hecuba

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10
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Bird’s song has turned into pain.

A

“my song has become a scream” (10)- Hecuba

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11
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Describe unbearable pain, comparison to animal.

A

“what words, what howling, can give tongue to a pain no animal can endure” (13)- Chorus

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12
Q

Theme: The suffering of the victims of war (loss of loved ones)
Explanation: Pain that may make you never recover.

A

“what I am suffering, and have suffered, what I will suffer yet, is more than enough to make anyone fall and never get up again.” (24)- Hecuba

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13
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy has been burnt.

A

“a smoking ruin” (5)- Poseidon

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14
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy has been burnt 2.

A

“ruined, smoke blackened stone” (29)- Hecuba

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15
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: The sanctuaries have been damaged.

A

“blood smears the sanctuaries” (5)- Poseidon

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16
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy is maternal.

A

“Troy, mother of us all!” (30)- Hecuba

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17
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy is now uninhabitable.

A

“great city into a wilderness” (40)- Menelaus

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18
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Talthybius wants everything to be consumed by the fire.

A

“burn everything down!” (57)- Talthybius

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19
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy is sacred and once safe haven.

A

“my beloved city, my children’s nurse” (59)- Hecuba

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20
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy will be forgotten.

A

“soon anonymous earth, like a forgotten song” (60)- Chorus

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21
Q

Theme: Loss of home/culture
Explanation: Troy is dying.

A

“Everything is dying, even the name: there is no place on earth called Troy” (60)- Chorus

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22
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: The sounds women make.

A

“screams and moans of captured women” (6)- Poseidon

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23
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Andromache wants to be a desireable wife.

A

“reputation as the ideal wife” (32)- Andromache

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24
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Made use of as a slave.

A

“to be yoked as a slave” (33)- Andromache

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25
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Women are objectified and stolen by soldiers.

A

“we are loot… soldier’s plunder” (31)- Andromache
Stage directions: “wheeled in on top of baggage wagon loaded with spoils” (28) (Andromache&Astyanax)
“like loot they are stealing us” (59)- Hecuba

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26
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Banished from Troy and treated as objects.

A

“exiled from Troy, dehumanized, reduced to the thing.” (50)- Chorus

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27
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Troy is being hacked.

A

“Our land is under the whip” (50)- Chorus
“under the Troy-sacker’s heel” (13)- Chorus

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28
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Hecuba belongs to another man now.

A

“she belongs to Odysseus now” (58)- Talthybius

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29
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: The royals have been stripped of their duties.

A

“we… rule nothing now” (9)- Hecuba

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30
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Their thrones have been abandoned.

A

“throned in the dust” (10)- Hecuba

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31
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Women of Troy now face a life of slavery.

A

“wretched women of Troy, facing a life of slavery” (11)- Chorus

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32
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Hecuba used to be used to a luxury in life.

A

“these feet of mine- so used to deep carpets… they belong to a slave now.” (26)- Hecuba

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33
Q

Theme: Loss of autonomy (freedom/status/identity)
The objectification of women
Explanation: Numb from pain now, crying

A

“let these tears, these torturers, whip me senseless” (26)- Hecuba

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34
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: Dangerous payload

A

“murderous payload” (5)- Poseidon

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35
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The strength of the Greeks

A

“ferocious strike force” (5)- Poseidon

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36
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: Description of the Greeks at war

A

“war machine” (5)- Poseidon

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37
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: Animalstic features of Greeks

A

“like hunters on the scent” (10)- Hecuba

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38
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: Animalstic features of Greeks 2

A

“whose animal appetite savages all decency” (16)- Hecuba

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39
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The women are vulnerable and are misused.

A

“a whole generation of women raped in their own bedrooms” (28)- Chorus

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40
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The Greek atrocities are worse than those of the barbarians.

A

“you have dreamed up such cruelties even barbarians would flinch at” (37)- Andromache

41
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The sun

A

“even the sun shines brighter today” (40)- Menelaus

42
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: Selfish Menelaus

A

“I am the man, Menelaus” (40)- Menelaus

43
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The Greeks have been ruthless, transforming the city.

A

“Greeks have butchered the lot, and turned his great city into a wilderness” (40)- Menelaus

44
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The bodies of the Greeks are left behind in a land that isn’t theres.

A

“their bodies lie forgotten in a foreign country” (20)- Cassandra

45
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The Greeks keep dying.

A

“These Greeks, then they began to die and they kept on dying” (20)- Cassandra

46
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: Talthybius is victim to this.

A

“slaves yourselves, doing great men’s dirty work” (22)- Chorus

47
Q

Theme: The brutality of the Greek soldiers
Explanation: The Trojans were vulnerable and attacked.

A

“the Trojans were cut down in their own homes, in sanctuary” (27)- Chorus

48
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba encourages her women to do this.

A

“lift your head up from the dust, heave up from the earth” (9)- Hecuba

49
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Cassandra implores her women to use their torches.

A

“hold it up, the torch, let it flame” (17)- Cassandra

50
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Cassandra claims that she used torches.

A

“I fired these torches” (18)- Cassandra

51
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Cassandra seeks revenge and compares the way she’ll be a wife to Agamemnon like Helen.

A

“Agamemnon.. will find me more destructive as a wife than ever Helen was!” (19)- Cassandra

52
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Cassandra seeks to cause damage.

A

“I’ll kill him, and destroy his whole family in return for my father and brothers destroyed” (19)- Cassandra

53
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Cassandra hopes upon a great marriage.

A

“the rich fruit which the tree of my marriage will bear” (19)- Cassandra

54
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Cassandra is determined.

A

“I shall destroy them” (21)- Cassandra

55
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: The importance of hope.

A

“The living at least have hope. To be dead is nothing.” (32)- Hecuba

56
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation:

A

“I got down from the cart, cut down the body, covered it with her dress.” (31)- Andromache

57
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba describes Helen.

A

“Fluent, but wicked. She’s a dangerous woman.” (41)- Hecuba

58
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba condemns the Greeks’ fear of a child.

A

“Oh you Greeks… were you so frightened of a child?” (52)- Hecuba

59
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba calls the Greeks this.

A

“What cowards you are” (52)- Hecuba

60
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba wonders how different things would be without suffering.

A

“if the god had not decided to make the greatest suffer most… what nonentities we would all have been!” (56)- Hecuba

61
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba believes she and her women will inspire generations to come.

A

“the poets a hundred generations hence have taken us as their great theme” (57)- Hecuba

62
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba has to bury Astyanax.

A

“to dress his poor body for burial” (54)- Hecuba

63
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: The women find things to bury Astyanax with.

A

“we found these things among the ruins. They’ll do to prepare the body for burial.” (55)- Chorus

64
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba encourages her women to gain strength as a life of slavery awaits.

A

“old limbs, strengthen yourselves. Your slavery is beginning.” (60)- Hecuba

65
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba commands her women to do this at the end.

A

“March down to the Achaean fleet!” (61)- Hecuba

66
Q

Theme: The strength and resilience of women
Explanation: Hecuba includes all women.

A

“my women, my girls” (11)- Hecuba

67
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: They call upon Zeus.

A

“Oh Zeus… unknown, unknowable” (41)- Hecuba

68
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: The God’s opinion towards Troy.

A

“The gods hate Troy” (40)- Chorus

69
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Hecuba is not happy about Zeus’ betrayal.

A

“O Zeus, our eyes are open now! You have betrayed us to the Greeks” (49)- Chorus

70
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: The Gods are childlike and mad.

A

“the force that governs our lives, what else is it but a mad man dancing” (54)- Hecuba

71
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Poseidon claims that he built Troy.

A

“I built this city- with Apollo I built it” (5)- Poseidon

72
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Troy is not worth looking after anymore.

A

“there’s no longer anything left worth a god’s consideration” (6)- Poseidon

73
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Poseidon decides to abandon Troy.

A

“I too shall desert famous Troy” (6)- Poseido

74
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Athene plans to destroy the Greeks’ journey home.

A

“I shall make the Greek’s return home a disaster.” (7)- Athene

75
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Poseidon describes Athene’s state of mind.

A

“cavalier change of mind” (7)- Poseidon

76
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Athene relies on Zeus.

A

“Zeus has promised me a savage hail storm” (8)- Athene

77
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Zeus’ weapon.

A

“the use of his thunderbolts” (8)- Athene

78
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: Athene wants the mortality rate to be high.

A

“floating corpses so thick you could walk on them” (8)- Athene

79
Q

Theme: The power of the gods and fate
Explanation: The Gods have betrayed the mortals.

A

“oh you gods, what good were you to us? Betrayers!” (24)- Hecuba

80
Q

Theme: Fighting for a just cause
Explanation: War must be avoided.

A

“Any sensible man must hate war, he does his best to avoid it.” (21)- Cassandra

81
Q

Theme: Fighting for a just cause
Explanation: Dying with values is best.

A

“It is a crown of honour to die nobly, with dignity” (21)- Cassandra

82
Q

Theme: Fighting for a just cause
Explanation: the Trojan soliders fought for a just cause.

A

“they won the greatest of all glories. They died fighting for their fatherland” (20)- Cassandra

83
Q

Theme: Fighting for a just cause
Explanation: Sacred burial

A

“the earth that covered him was the sacred soil of the land of his fathers” (20)- Cassandra

84
Q

Theme: Fighting for a just cause
Explanation: Astyanax is buried in this.

A

“this is the shield that protected Hector’s magnificent arm!” (54)- Hecuba

85
Q

Theme: Fighting for a just cause
Explanation: The shield shall never die.

A

“and for you, great shield, who protected Hector like a mothers, and gave birth to victories beyond number, a garland of flowers. You are not dead, nor will ever be.” (55)- Hecuba

86
Q

Greek terms: Hamartia

A

Character flaw leading to downfall. Unlike most Greek tragedies, there is no obvious hamartia leading to the downfall of the female characters. This is what makes the play so poignant. In this way, Euripides disrupts the expectations of his Athenian audience.

87
Q

Greek terms: Hubris

A

Excessive pride

88
Q

Greek terms: Catharsis

A

Purification through suffering, intended to teach us of our insignificance. The audience’s alternating feelings of fear and terror provide cleansing… they feel better after the emotional roller-coaster. It is this process of purging which becomes cathartic.

89
Q

Greek terms: Deus ex machina

A

‘God in the machine’. Use to refer to the appearance of the gods on stage (Poseidon and Athene during the prologue). However, it is not a conventional use of this term, for the gods are not arriving to ‘save’ anyone. They merely observe the destruction. It is important to show awareness of this if you to use the term.

90
Q

Greek terms: Oikos

A

The family and its importance in society.

91
Q

Greek terms: Prologos

A

The first scene in the play.

92
Q

Greek terms: Parados

A

The entrance of the chorus.

93
Q

Greek terms: Monody

A

A song of lament (eg, Hecuba’s)

94
Q

Greek terms: Episodes

A

The action of the play

95
Q

Greek terms: Choral ode/stasimon

A

Sung by the chorus in between the episodes.

96
Q

Greek terms: Exodus

A

The final scene of the play.

97
Q

Greek terms: Peripeteia

A

Reversal of fortune. Hecuba was once a queen, and becomes a slave.

98
Q

Greek terms: Kommos

A

Reversal of fortune. Hecuba was once a queen, and becomes a slave.

English (6 decks)

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