Euripedes’s empathy for women was about 3000 years too soon, and might still be ahead of his time. We’ve heard so much about how the world of the Ancient Greeks are so alien to us moderns. But The Trojan Women makes clear that cruelty and amorality are as old as drama itself.
The consequences for breaking the natural law were clearly obvious to Euripedes (if not Homer), who makes them the basis for his mythic tragedies. These laws are written in our hearts and belong to the world beyond our what we can easily perceive. And yet these stories resonate precisely because we are so closely tied to this “ancient” past.
Really strong performances throughout this film, but as always Irene Papas steals the show with her unrepentant Helen of Troy (about as far a 180 from Lupita’s characterization as you’ll see).
Properly realized, these stories lose none of their ancient power. We’re not as advanced and optimized and scientific as we like to think.