TROADES
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
| Agamemnon | King of the Greek forces in the war against Troy. |
| Pyrrhus | Son of Achilles, one of the active leaders in the final events of the war. |
| Ulysses | King of Ithaca, one of the most powerful and crafty of the Greek chiefs before Troy. |
| Calchas | A priest and prophet among the Greeks. |
| Talthybius | A Greek messenger. |
| An Old Man | Faithful to Andromache. |
| Astyanax | Little son of Hector and Andromache. |
| Hecuba | Widow of Priam, one of the Trojan captives. |
| Andromache | Widow of Hector, a Trojan captive. |
| Helena | Wife of Menelaüs, king of Sparta, and afterward of Paris, a prince of Troy; the exciting cause of the Trojan war. |
| Polyxena | Daughter of Hecuba and Priam (persona muta). |
| Chorus | Of captive Trojan women. |
The scene is laid on the seashore, with the smouldering ruins of Troy in the background. The time is the day before the embarkation of the Greeks on their homeward journey.
The long and toilsome siege of Troy is done. Her stately palaces and massive walls have been overthrown and lie darkening the sky with their still smouldering ruins. Her heroic defenders are either slain or scattered seeking other homes in distant lands. The victorious Greeks have gathered the rich spoils of Troy upon the shore, among these, the Trojan women who have suffered the usual fate of women when a city is sacked. They await the lot which shall assign them to their Grecian lords and scatter them among the cities of their foes. All things are ready for the start.
But now the ghost of Achilles has risen from the tomb, and demanded that Polyxena be sacrificed to him before the Greeks shall be allowed to sail away. And Calchas, also, bids that Astyanax be slain, for only thus can Greece be safe from any future Trojan war. And thus the Trojan captives who have so long endured the pains of war, must suffer still this double tragedy.
ACT I
Hecuba: Whoe'er in royal power has put his trust,
And proudly lords it in his princely halls;