![]() ![]() Although all remaining Trojan women are now slaves, Hecuba was once a queen, and therefore her fall from grace is especially tragic. From the beginning, Hecuba laments her changing fate. ![]() The Trojan Women shows readers that fortune and status are unpredictable-indeed, it often seems the only predictable aspect of a person’s fortune is that it will surely be reversed. Similarly, Athena turns against the Greeks when she discovers that they have “outraged my temple, and shamed me.” As a result, Athena vows to “do some evil to them” so that the “Greeks may learn how to use with fear / my sacred places, and respect all gods beside.” She, like the other gods, has no real loyalty to anyone but herself. For example, Hera and Athena only sided with the Greeks because they were offended that Paris had chosen Aphrodite over them in a beauty contest. They seem to only influence the life of mortals when they themselves have been offended. They let the women suffer although they could prevent it. Helen illustrates this when she tells Menelaus, “Challenge the goddess then show your strength greater than Zeus, / who has the other gods in his power, and still is slave / to Aphrodite alone! Shall I not be forgiven?” The gods can influence life and fortunes on earth, but generally choose not to intervene. Like mortals, the gods are locked in constant struggles for power, which color their actions and decisions. Helen argues that she was controlled by Aphrodite, and cannot be held accountable for her actions, as the gods themselves are powerless against fate and, in this case, against Aphrodite as well. Later, Menelaus and Helen argue about how much influence the gods had in her elopement with Paris. Poseidon, who backed the Trojans, laments that “The will of Argive Hera and Athena won / its way against my will.” Although relative to a mortal he is all-powerful, he is still in conflict against other, more willful or more powerful gods, who successfully backed the Greek army. These gods, who are ostensibly above petty feuds, are in fact more concerned with whether or not their side wins than with the massive loss of human life enabled by the war they’ve allowed to continue. War, which is already full of twists, turns, and reversals, becomes more full of surprises when immensely powerful figures like Poseidon, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite are able to reach into the action and supernaturally manipulate events. ![]() As a result, their actions on earth reflect their own biases and ego trips, as they use the mortal conflict to prove their own superiority. In the world of The Trojan Women, the gods are characters with personal stakes in the outcome of the Trojan War. Over and over again, Euripides demonstrates that fate is fickle, out of the hands of even the omnipotent gods and goddesses, who, in fact, use their influence to further upend earthly fortunes. As a result, the fate of the humans they watch over is necessarily unpredictable as well. ![]() Although all-powerful, the gods of mythology, like mortals, have egos, emotions, insecurities and power struggles that guarantee their manipulation of mortal lives is biased, capricious, and entirely unforeseeable. Even the Greek gods, who are capable of influencing events on earth, and who could be expected to act as a moderating, steadying force, are emotional and unpredictable in their behavior. From the smallest child to the most powerful king, Euripides again and again argues that fortunes are changeable and tragedy indiscriminate. A woman can be queen one day, and a slave the next children can have long lives ahead of them, and then be sentenced to death a warrior can expect to take a few months to sail home, but instead spend ten years on his journey because the gods choose to lengthen his journey. Fortunes are in constant flux, and fates are turned upside down in the span of days or even hours. The world of The Trojan Women is unpredictable. ![]()
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