**Euripides (Athens, c. 450 BC)**
+## Background
+
+- Set in 415 BC, after Trojan War
+- Inspired by Homer's Iliad - mythical poem by Homer (Greek poet). Final weeks of war.
+- 416 BC - Greeks invade Melos (Peloponnesian War). Melians neutral (relationship to Sparta)
+- Athenians believed they were most civilised society
+
+### Trojan War
+
+- Eris, goddess of discord, gives golden apple to Hera, Athena, Aphrodite
+- Zeus sends Eris to decide who has apple
+- Paris/Alexander steals Helen from her husband Menelaus with help of Aphrodite
+- King Menelaus gathers army
+- Helen of Sparta becomes Helen of Troy
+- war lasted 10 years
+- Achilles & Hector killed
+- gods take sides & end war
+- Trojan horse - invented by Athena, executed by Odysseus & Athenians
+- Trojans had banquet at end of war when Trojan horse arrived
+
+### Euripides
+
+- Athenian, 450 BC
+- Golden Age - political/artistic/intellectual reneissance
+- progressive representation of female characters, graphic/uncouth plays
+- critical of society
+- Athens attacked by Sparta >5 times
+
+
+
+
## Characters
-**Poseidon** - god of the sea
-**Athene** - goddess of wisdom
+**Poseidon** - (careless) god of the sea, built Troy w/ Apollo
+**Apollo** - god, affair w/ Cassandra in exchange for persistent foresight
+**Athene** - goddess of wisdom - supported Greeks in Battle of Troy
**Hecuba** - widow of Priam, King of Troy. Old & "grey-haired".
+**Priam** - husband of Hecuba. 50 kids.
+**Alexander** - aka Paris. Son of Priam & Hecuba. Kidnaps Helen from Sparta (most beautiful)
**Cassandra** - their daughter, a prophetess. Manic.
**Andromache** - their daughter-in-law, widow of Hector
**Talthybius** - Greek officer - assigns women
**Menelaus** - King of Sparta
-**Helen** - his wife, Trojan, imprisoned
+**Helen** - his wife, Trojan, imprisoned
**Chorus** of Trojan women, captured
**Astryanax** - small boy, Hector and Andromache's son
-**Greek soldiers**
+**Greek soldiers**
+
+
- *trojan* - native of Troy
- Epeios (Greek) built Trojan horse to defeat King Priam of Troy (city)
- "All the women of Troy who've not yet been allocated are in this building here"
- Poseidon & Athene destroy Greece with help from Zeus
- Invasion depiction - p.26
+
+
+- Greeks killed astyanax irrationally
+- Women accept their role as slaves
+
+## Quotes
+
+> “The lucky ones are dead” - slug-emdez- NUTZZZZ
+
+> “I won’t sleep on a royal mattress anymore” - Also slugmEem
+
+> “No, no one is happier dead. The living at least have hope. To be dead is to be nothing.”
+
+> “After so many sorrows, and in such despair, words mean nothing”
+
+> "muh slavery"
+
+## Personification
+
+### Hecuba
+
+Complains, representing elderly, voice of Women of Troy. Wise.
+Personifies Troy. Persistence/hope.
+
+### Cassandra
+
+Revenge, irrationality
+
+### Andromache
+
+she ded
+
+### Chorus
+
+Represents pain, magnitude of people. Represents Women of Troy (society). Pleads to Ancient Greeks.
+Effectively narrator (background info etc). Gives more context than Hecuba.
+
+### Talthybius
+
+Brutality, power. Self-serving. Analogy with Auschwitz.
+Conflicted interests - doesn't want to be evil (empathises with women). However, it is his duty to Greeks.
+
+### Menelaus
+
+Power, selfishness, arrogance.
+Blind to his flaws (perhaps naive).
+
+### Helen
+
+Imprisonment. Manipulative. Self-serving.
+
+## Imagery
+
+### Water / Nautical
+
+> "flow with the stream, let the new wind fill our sails, not breast a rinning tide with our fragile prow" (p.9)
+
+- start of play - Poseidon abandons ship
+- water becomes symbol of comfort/peace for women (constant/familiar)
+- symoblism of bodies of water = tears
+
+### Dark & light
+
+### Violence
+
+> "it degrades the decency of speech to put such things into words" (p.53)
+
+- animalistic depictions of Hecuba
+- graphic violent passages (e.g. Astyanax's body - p.35, p.51)
+- uncharacteristic of artistic norms at time of writing
+- comment on brutality/senselessness of war
+- lost innocence/peace/humanity/honour (symbol of Astyanax)
+- loss of common sense / perversion of nature & morality
+- no positive outcome of violence without sacrifice of morality/humanity (e.g. Talthybius)
+- appeal to Athenian audience incl. children
+- war effects everyone (e.g. Astyanax) therefore everyone should see the brutal outcome
+- acknowledgement that children should not be involved
+
+
+## Extra English 3/4/19 - Building complexity
+
+### Structure
+
+- interesting opening statement/quote
+- background hooks
+- link topic to views & values
+- do not list points
+- emotional engagement - e.g. poignantly, "barbaric cruelty" etc
+- do not evaluate play
+
+### Vocabulary
+
+- make a list of useful words/synonyms for essays
+- suffering/grief, comfort, cruelty, condemnation, hope
+
+### Ideas
+
+- subtlties of characters - offer rebuttals/contrasts
+- subtle differences between characters
+
+### Detailed knowledge
+
+- discuss >1 character / paragraph
+- focus on ideas/motifs in paragraphs, not characters
+- comment on stage directions, context etc
+
+### Views and values
+
+- rewrite link sentences as views & values statements
+- develop a personal interpretation of the text
+- consider how Taylor's translation impacts the message
+- context (time, society etc) - Euripides warns his contemporaries against war
+- women - Hecuba's power over men vs Helen's power over women
+
+### Text construction
+
+- motifs/images - water, song/dance, animals (dehumanisation), personification of Troy
+- graphic depictions of violence & dehumanisation
+- entire play is like its own ending/conclusion (lamenting, despair)
+- gods do not care about Trojans, but readers do
+- discuss significance of single characters and representation of groups, e.g. Talthybius & Menelaus are the only Greek characters.
+