The morning after Troy falls. The Greek victors divide the spoils — the women. Hecuba, Andromache, Helen, and the other Trojan women face slavery, exile, and the murder of their children. Astyanax, Hector's infant son, is thrown from the walls. Polyxena is sacrificed at Achilles's tomb. A play about what happens to the people who don't get to be heroes.
Start ReadingHecuba, queen of fallen Troy, mourns amid the ruins. She has buried Priam. Now she waits to learn her fate and the fate of the other captive women. The chorus of Trojan women join her lament — Troy is ash, and they are prizes.
Achilles' ghost appears above his tomb, demanding blood. He wants Polyxena, Priam's youngest daughter, sacrificed at his grave before the Greeks can sail home. Pyrrhus, his son, argues for the sacrifice. Agamemnon hesitates. Calchas settles it: Polyxena dies, and Astyanax must be thrown from the walls.
Andromache hides her infant son Astyanax in Hector's tomb — the one place the Greeks won't look. Ulysses comes searching. He is cunning, she is desperate. A battle of wits with a child's life at stake. She almost wins. She doesn't.
Helen is sent to trick Polyxena into coming willingly to her death — told she is to be married to Pyrrhus. Helen weeps, hating her role. Andromache sees through it. Polyxena, learning the truth, goes to her death with more dignity than anyone left alive.
A messenger describes both deaths. Astyanax throws himself from the walls before the Greeks can push him — a final act of Hector's courage in a child's body. Polyxena bows her neck to Pyrrhus' blade at Achilles' tomb. Even the Greeks weep. The women are divided among the ships and Troy is left empty.