Trojan Women

1. As someone who was once curious about the world without me (thought experiments, nothing harmful), while reading through the text, I was surprised how much it reminded me of the greatness of a mother’s love, especially in a period of men dominance. The queen of Troy, Hecuba, lost her husband and all but one of her children. She compared herself to a bird of fallen chicks, and she will “cry the loudest” (Trojan Women, 36). Meanwhile, she suffered through witnessing her children’s death, “son by son, brought down by the Greek spear, and for every one of them she cut her hair in mourning at their tombs” (Trojan Women, 47). She cried because “she raised them only to be stolen from her” (Trojan Women, 48). And when she heard the death of her daughter Polyxena, her “pain cuts deeper” (Trojan Women, 53). Needless to say, we could conclude that Hecuba was mentally shattered from the losses of everything she had, especially her children. Most importantly, we could witness the greatness of a parent’s love: the importance of a child’s happiness, health, and wellbeing; we could also see how much they mean to her. This makes me regret some of the times I spent with my parents- I didn’t understand them or treat them well. I am glad that I still have time to hopefully make up to them.
2. One of the interesting points I noticed was that everyone, both in the text or in real life, suffer from an event, but then compete to see who suffer the most. This is mostly reflected in contrast between Hecuba and Andromache. Based on the text, they both lost their beloved husband, their children, and home in a brutal battle. Despite losing people who were close to both of them, Andromache still believe that Hecuba’s suffering “doesn’t compare with what she has to suffer” (Trojan Women, 54). At the same time, Hecuba definitely lost more than Andromache, but still has hope because “life means hope, death is nothing at all” (Trojan Women, 53); Andromache lost less number of her family but could not accept the fact and wants to terminate her life “since death ends every suffering” (Trojan Women, 53). This is something I have been noticing around me for a long time, from a small scale like doing homework to a terrible disaster. Based on observation, people always wanted to compete for suffering for “emotional support and sympathy” to a degree, which I think could be explained through the example from the text above.

1. Hecuba was portraited as someone who accepts the faith and chooses to live. She tells Andromache that “life means hope, death is nothing at all” (Trojan Women, 53). At the same time, despite losing everything she ever had, she never mentioned she would end it all, but instead looked to life and hoped for the best. Later in the text however, she concluded that it is “better to die here burning in my homeland as it burns” (Trojan Women, 75) in her monologue while she “staggers toward the walls, but is stopped by Odysseus’s men” (Trojan Women, 75). Why was she portraited differently at the beginning and end of the text? Was she supposed to be seen as strong or weak, accepting or denying, hopeful or defeated? Why is the main character slowly crumbing at the end? I am confused because in modern literature, most protagonists will learn a positive lesson and take a turn for the good, but here it is the opposite- Hecuba became weaker and weaker mentally.
2. Which party was glorified in the story? The Greeks defeated Troy, but the story was specifically interested in the bravery of the soldiers of Troy, especially Hecuba’s children because they were “ royal sons, supreme among all the Phrygians, sons such as no Trojan or Greek or any other foreign Mother could ever brag of having” (Trojan Women, 47). Greek soldiers were never mentioned as strong the way Trojans were portraited. Does the author have a bias?

1. What was the purpose of Poseidon and Athena? Why did they slowly disappear from the story? Why couldn’t finish or reappear in the story?
2. Is death honorable or fearful?