Matt Murphy
Section A
November 24, 2015
Character Comparison in The Women of Troy and Book Six of The Iliad
In separate works of literature, the same characters can be incorporated into the plot, but
be described differently. This is especially true in ancient Greek literature, because many plays
and other works are written about legends involving the same gods, goddesses, and characters.
Authors can portray the same characters in both similar and alternate ways. The play The Women
of Troy by Euripides and the excerpt Book Six of the epic The Iliad, pieces from ancient
Greece, utilize this practice. These works follow the story of the Trojan War from different
perspectives and settings: The Women of Troy tells of the events that take place following the
war whereas The Iliad: Book Six describes the war itself and the actions of Hektor. However,
both tales follow the stories of the royal family of Troy. Hecube, the queen of Troy, is in despair
in The Women of Troy as she weeps for her lost son Hektor and the pains of Hektor’s wife,
Andromache. Homer and Euripides show contrasts and similarities between the characters of
Andromache, gods and goddesses, and Hecube in The Iliad: Book Six and The Women of Troy.
Andromache is an essential character in both The Iliad: Book Six and The Women of
Troy. The authors of these stories give separate images of Andromache. Homer depicts
Andromache as a lamenting woman, which is shown when Andromache exclaims to Homer,
“Your own great strength will be your death, and you have no pity on your little son, nor on
me”. Euripides also depicts Andromache as an emotional woman when he writes about
Andromache and Hecube complaining to each other about the misfortunes in their lives due to
the war. Andromache is mourning over Hektor’s death in The Women of Troy, which is similar to
how she protests Hektor’s going back to war in The Iliad: Book Six because of what will happen
if he dies. Contrastingly, in The Women of Troy, Andromache is depicted as a strong, perfect
women suitable to be the wife of the perfect man, Hektor. Andromache says that she, “Strictly
set myself to attain all womanly perfection,” in order to simply be Hektor’s wife. However, this
is not the case in The Iliad: Book Six: Andromache is depicted as only a self-pitying slave. The
authors both portray the character of Andromache similarly as emotional, yet Euripides portrays
her as both emotional and strong.
The roles of gods and goddesses are an important part of the characters’ lives in The
Iliad: Book Six and have a less impactful role in The Women of Troy. In The Iliad: Book Six,
Hecube’s only role is to pray to Athene for mercy on the Trojan women and children. Hektor
leaves the battle specifically to order Hecube to gather the women to pray to Athene,
demonstrating the accentuated importance of the gods and goddesses in The Iliad: Book Six. In
The Women of Troy, however, Hecube creates a new prayer to Zeus that is not as religious as a
traditional prayer. The defeated queen of Troy questions what form Zeus takes, whether it is
human intelligence, art, or a mysterious form, but continues to praise Zeus and ask for a just end.
This shows that they were questioning the essence of the gods and their effects on human life. At
the end of The Women of Troy people lose all respect for the gods and say, “No more prayers to
gods,” because they do not believe that the gods can help them now. This greatly contradicts how
the gods are treated in The Iliad: Book Six, where people believe that the outcome of any conflict
is the result of a decision of a god or goddess. People in The Women of Troy do not believe that
everything is dependent upon the gods. Homer and Euripides show the contrasting importance of
the deities in their works The Iliad: Book Six and The Women of Troy, respectively.
Hecube is a compassionate character in both works. However, in The Iliad: Book Six, she
is a minor character who is passive and compliant. In The Women of Troy, she is the Queen of
Troy, who is active and commanding. In both The Women of Troy and The Iliad: Book Six,
Hecube cares for her son, Hektor, very much. First, she offers Hektor a glass of wine when he
comes to see her during the battle in The Iliad: Book Six. She also weeps with Andromache after
his death in The Women of Troy. In regards to her compliance, in The Iliad: Book Six, when
Hektor orders Hecube to gather the Trojan women to pray to Athene and she listens to him and
performs this task immediately, without questioning why. This varies from the Hecube portrayed
in The Women of Troy who immediately takes control of Troy after Priam’s death and keeps the
women calm while they await capture from the Greek men. She also shows strength when she
tells Menelaus to hold a hearing for the fate of Helen, instead of unjustly taking her life, which
proves how she is a strong woman who can make decisions and express her opinions to men. In
The Iliad: Book Six and The Women of Troy, Hecube is shown as emotional, yet in The Women
of Troy she capitalizes on situations and takes charge, unlike her character in The Iliad: Book Six.
Homer and Euripides show contrasts and similarities between the characters of
Andromache, the deities, and the characters of Hecube in their respective works The Iliad: Book
Six and The Women of Troy. Each of these characters maintains the same role in both of the
works, but do not have the same character traits. Only Euripides depicts her to be confident and
strong-willed, whereas Homer only depicts her as confident. The roles of the gods and goddesses
in the lives of humans differ between the works: the actions of the deities conduct the path of life
in The Iliad: Book Six while their roles are not so significant in The Women of Troy. The
powerful emotions of Hecube are portrayed by both authors whereas only Euripides shows her
leadership and independence in addition to her compassion. These differences, especially those
in the importance of the deities, also show the variances in the cultures of the time periods during
which these works were written. The fact that the gods and goddesses were not as respected in
The Women of Troy as they were in The Iliad: Book Six shows that during those better times, the
Socratic times, Greek culture was moving away from a mythological focus and into a focus on
philosophy. From analyzing the depictions of characters in two works written in different time
periods, the change in culture can be perceived as the importance of certain aspects of the works
alter.