EuripidesÃÂ tragedy ÃÂThe Trojan WomenÃÂ is a reflection of the changing attitude held towards AthensÃÂ involvement in the Peloponnesian War by both Euripides and Athenian society. Euripides establishes a clear political allusion between the Peloponnesian War and ÃÂThe Trojan WomenÃÂ, asserting the futility of war and the inevitable misery for both the defeated and victorious. Written in 415 B.C., ÃÂThe Trojan WomenÃÂ reflects a social atmosphere of political and military struggles, where Athenian civic life and public opinion were overturned by the devastations of the Peloponnesian War.
The correlation between the events of ÃÂThe Trojan WomenÃÂ and controversial episodes of the Peloponnesian War illustrate the rising resentment of war held by Euripides and his audience. Greenstein comments ÃÂIn both dialogue and subject matter EuripidesÃÂ plays about the consequences of the Trojan War are often commentaries on the horrors, moral issues, and conflicts that took placeÃÂ in the 5th Century B.C.
The play was written in 415 B.C ÃÂ a social climate where the audience could easily conceive the possibility of the destruction of a Greek city in warfare. The Ancient Greek world of 5th Century B.C. was torn asunder by continuous warfare, influencing the social and political spheres of Athenian civic life. This depicted threat of invasion is exemplified by the destruction of Plataea in 427 B.C, an allied city just forty miles from Athens conquered by the Peloponnesians. While the Trojan setting of the play appears hardly paradigmatic of a contemporary Greek polis, Professor Easterling states ÃÂThe Trojan WomenÃÂ in light of its war-stricken context ÃÂmust surely have been perceived as suggesting meanings relevant to its own timesÃÂ Thedistance in time and space and the cast of appropriate heroic characters in no way reduce the power of the text to...