Marie Tan
November 24, 2015
Section B
You Are What You Eat
The Trojan War influenced many writers, especially the ancient Greeks, to write their
own version of the infamous war. Two examples of these authors are Homer, who wrote the epic
The Iliad in circa 750 BC, and Euripides, who wrote the play The Women of Troy in circa 415
BC. Despite describing the same war, there are clear differences between the two pieces of
literature. These variations are attributed to the environment of the authors and the state of their
country. The historical background of The Iliad and The Women of Troy impacted how they were
written.
The lack of philosophical reasoning in The Iliad becomes apparent when it is compared
adjacently to The Women of Troy. In Book Six of The Iliad, Hector is about to leave for the front
lines. He meets Andromache, his wife, and tells her, “No man is going to hurl me to Hades,
unless it is fated, but as for fate, I think that no man yet has escaped it once it has taken its first
form, neither brave man nor coward.” Hector accepts his death because he believes that his death
is what the gods have chosen. He abides by the gods and does not challenge them. Hecuba, in
The Women of Troy, asks Menelaus to give Helen a chance to give reasons for her treachery, but
with the intention that Hecuba will refute Helen’s excuses. In Hecuba’s rebuttal, Hecuba states,
“I don’t believe gods to be capable of such folly, as that Hera should bargain away Argos to
barbarians, or virgin Pallas see her Athens subjected to Troy. Why should they indulge in such
frivolity as travelling to Mount Ida for a beauty-match?” She gives more reasoning to how it
cannot be possible that the goddesses would fight for beauty. Hecuba criticizes the goddesses’
actions and completely refutes the mythology behind the Trojan War using reason. In the 6th
century BC, the Greeks questioned their gods on mount Olympus. Suddenly without a
justification of how the world works, the Greeks created more logical explanations of the
workings of the world than what they previously believed. The philosophy that the modern world
knows did not develop until Socrates introduced the Socratic Method where he emphasized on
questioning and reasoning, much like what Hecuba does in her counterclaim. Socrates was a
contemporary to Euripides, thus there is a plethora of evidence the influence philosophy had on
The Women of Troy. Unlike Hector in The Iliad who accepts his fate and does not question the
gods, Hecuba in The Women of Troy questions her whole belief by using philosophy.
The author’s purpose for writing the work of literature also affected how The Iliad and
The Women of Troy were written. Homer uses many epithets in The Iliad, such as “Menelaus of
the great battle cry” or “gray-eyed Athene”. These epithets were employed as a result of the
constraints of the rhythmic scheme in The Iliad. They were also used as a mnemonic device for
the readers and the orator, making it clear that The Iliad was something to be memorized. In The
Women of Troy, it is made apparent that Polyxena, one of Hecuba’s daughters, has died through
the dialogue of Poseidon and Athena. When questioned about Polyxena by Hecuba, Talthybius, a
Greek herald, answers evasively as he states, “She has been attendant at Achilles’ tomb.”
Although Talthybius is a Greek, he shows hesitance as he answers the fate of Hecuba’s daughter,
which displays a level of compassion. The story of the Trojan War was passed down from
generation to generation by the use of oral tradition. It was important to be able to remember the
whole epic, therefore, Homer utilized mnemonics, such as epithets, so the story will be able to be
retold. In Euripides’s case, however, he resided in a time period where the best playwright would
win money through a contest. He lived off of winning playwriting contests. As a result of this
ambition, Euripides, like many other Greek playwrights, implemented characters like Talthybius
who represents a bridge between the audience and the characters in the play. Most of the
audiences at the time knew about the fate of each character in The Women of Troy, a schematic
known as dramatic irony. Talthybius is a character that must give grievous messages to the
women, rather evasively, and is one of the few characters in the play that knows the women’s
fates. The audience identifies themselves with Talthybius, who clearly does not want to be in the
position he is in. Euripides is able to create an emotional response out of the audience, thus,
creating a successful play. Even the author’s purpose for writing impacted how the work was
written.
The tone of The Iliad and The Women of Troy are disparate because each view warfare
differently. In the beginning of Book Six of the Iliad, the Greeks are in a fierce battle against the
Trojans. Euralyos, a Greek, “slaughtered Opheltios and Dresos, and went in pursuit of Aisepos
and Pedasos…Now Mekisteor’s son unstrung the strength of these and the limbs in their glory,
Euryalos, and stripped the armor away from their shoulders.” Homer uses verbs that are animate,
such as “unstrung” or “stripped”, which makes the reader feel as if they too are in the battle. The
reader cannot help but feel empowered, even though The Iliad talks about slaughter. In addition,
Homer gives minimal information about the emotions of the characters being killed. The Iliad
focuses more on the excitement of war, rather than on the sadistic side of war, creating a tone
that glorifies violence. In The Women of Troy, Andromache receives the news that her son
Astyanax is to be thrown off a building to die because he is the Trojan hero Hector’s son.
Andromache expresses her grief as she states to her son, “You die, at enemy hands, and leave me
desolate. Your noble father’s greatness, which to other men brought hope and life and victory,
will cost you your death… When you were newly born I wrapped you up, gave you my breast,
tended you day and night, worn with weariness-For nothing, all for nothing! Say good-bye to me
once more, for the last time all.” Euripides depicts the consequence of the son of an enemy hero,
a consequence of war. Not only does he illustrate the result of Astyanax, a little boy, he also
shows the motherly grief of Andromache. Unlike Homer, Euripides gives more emotion into the
characters and creates a tone of the graveness of war. The difference in the tone is attributed to
the time the two works were written in. Although the Trojan War took place in circa 1200 BC,
several hundred years later, Homer wrote about The Iliad. When The Iliad was first written, there
were no major wars that were fought by the Greeks, and most likely, the closest war in the time
was the Trojan War. The Iliad thus does not show the consequences of war and its tone evidently
focuses on glorifying the Greek soldiers. The play The Women of Troy, on the other hand, was
written when Greece was plagued with major wars, such as the Persian War (499 to 449 BC) and
the Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 BC). Instead of focusing on the physical battlefield,
Euripides shifted his focus onto the repercussions of the war, more specifically, the women left
behind. Because the effects of warfare are more relevant to contemporaries of Euripides than to
people during Homer’s time period, the tone in The Women of Troy is devastating, with no hint
of the glorification of Greek or Trojan soldiers.
There is a myriad of evidence that the environment that The Iliad and The Women of Troy
affected how the authors wrote the two works of literature. Although both are on the Trojan War,
their emphasis on the Trojan War is very different as a result of the situation of ideas, the
country, and even the authors. The fact that literature is influenced by the environment holds true
for modern entertainment as well. Much like The Iliad, the film The Godfather glorifies mafia
life and makes the audience wish to become a hero in the mafia like The Godfather because the
audience has never been in the situation and does not know the reality of actually joining the
mafia. George Orwell had a mission when he wrote dystopian novels, such as 1984 and Animal
Farm; it was to educate people that a world, much like the setting Orwell wrote about, can be
possible if political philosophy got out of hand. Although the mission statements for Euripides
and Orwell contrast greatly, much like Euripides, modern writers, like Orwell, wrote for a
purpose. Books such as 1984 or Animal Farm also indicates Orwell’s belief that totalitarian
states should be prohibited because Orwell was surrounded by the Soviet Union’s and
Germany’s totalitarian states and vehemently opposed the government system. Although Orwell
despised tyranny, a person in countries that are authoritarian, such as North Korea, may write
books on how great his or her government system is. While they are of the same species and
write essentially about the same thing, they have completely different views on their topic of
interest. The author’s writing style is impact by his or her environment.