The Trojan Women: Line 568-797 Summary & Analysis

Greek soldiers enter the stage, pulling Andromache and her baby Astyanax on a wagon, piled with other spoils of war. The Chorus announces her arrival and calls to Hecuba to come see her daughter-in-law and her grandchild.

Hecuba and Andromache begin to sing together, alternating phrases. Andromache announces that she will soon go with the Greeks, and wonders if her grief will cause Hecuba to cry as well. They lament the sad destiny of Hecuba’s children, and the sad destiny of the city of Troy.

Andromache calls out to Hector, her dead husband and Hecuba’s son. Andromache wants to die and join him. She believes the people of Troy must be “hated of the gods.” She can think of no other way to explain how Troy fell because of a “worthless woman” (Helen), or why its young men were killed and its women taken captive.

The two women stop singing and begin to speak. Hecuba says she sees the destruction of Troy as “the work of gods who pile tower-high the pride / of those who were nothing, and dash present grandeur down.”

Andromache reveals that Hecuba has lost another daughter; Polyxena was killed to “pleasure dead Achilles’ corpse.” Hecuba, who had not understood Talthybius earlier, finally understands what he was gently trying to tell her.

Hecuba begins to mourn Polyxena. Andromache tries to comfort her. Andromache saw Polyxena die, and was able to perform some funeral rites. She also argues that “to die / as she did was happier than to live” as the two women do now. Hecuba disagrees, but Andromache pushes back.

Andromache believes that death is better than a life of pain. The dead cannot grieve, and they cannot contemplate their suffering. Still alive, Andromache is acutely aware of the losses she’s endured, and how far her fortunes have fallen.

Andromache reflects on what a good wife she was — she rarely talked back, and she knew when and how to compromise. But now she feels that her reputation has ruined her life. Neoptolemus has picked her as his slave based on her good reputation, and now she must go to Greece with him. She isn’t sure what to do or how to feel—she hates the idea of women who cast off old lovers for new ones, and can’t imagine being a “traitor” to her dead husband, but she also knows she must comply with the desires of her new master.

Andromache remembers the beginning of her relationship with Hector, and compares it to her life now. She is expected to have a sexual relationship with Neoptolemus, but knows it will be nothing like the love she felt for her husband. Andromache then turns to Hecuba. She argues that her fate, which binds her to Neoptolemus, is worse than Polyxena’s. She has no hope to go on; she never expects to be happy again.

The Chorus leader, who has been listening to Andromache’s story, feels solidarity with her. In verbalizing her own suffering, she has also described the pain of the other Trojan women. 

Hecuba describes her own suffering through metaphor. As she grapples with an onslaught of woe, she feels like a ship’s crew overwhelmed by a storm. Her suffering is so great she has been “swamped” by disaster, and was unable to respond to Andromache during her earlier speech. Now, however, Hecuba has her voice back.

Hecuba advises Andromache to serve her master well, and to make him love her as protection. If Andromache and Neoptolemus have children together, Hecuba suggests these babies could grow up, return to Troy, and rebuild the city.  

Talthybius returns to the stage with his entourage of soldiers. He has come with terrible news, and is reluctant to deliver it. Andromache appreciates his sensitivity, but eventually he must speak: Odysseus has declared that Andromache’s son (Astyanax) must die. He refuses to let Hector’s child, a “hero’s son,” continue to live.

Astyanax will be thrown over the wall of Troy, Talthybius says, and he advises Andromache not to fight this decree. He asks her to consider “how can one woman hope to struggle against the arms of Greece?” He warns her that if she fights or says anything against the Greeks, her son will be denied his funeral rites, and will not be buried at all.

Andromache says a tearful farewell to her child, explaining that his father’s valor has proved a death sentence. She feels that all the love and pain of motherhood was all for nothing, only vanity. She then turns her attention to the Greeks—why “kill this child, who never did you any harm?” 

Andromache ends her speech by cursing the gods. She knows that if her son is to be killed it is because the gods “damn us to death,” and there is nothing she can do. She demands Talthybius take her to “that sweet bridal bed,” which she can only reach “across the death of my own child.” Talthybius takes Astyanax from her, and Andromache is wheeled offstage in the wagon she rode in on.

Talthybius speaks to Astyanax sweetly before passing him to a set of Greek guards, who carry the baby offstage. Talthybius explains he is not the man for the job; he has too much pity, too much shame to kill a child. He exits after the guards. Hecuba begins to chant. She wonders what suffering could possibly be left for her and the women of Troy.