Women of Trachis

Like most of the tragedies that have survived relatively complete, Women of Trachis retells a mythical narrative, both drawing on and modifying traditional elements. The ancient Greek myths were a vast, interconnected web of stories. Playwrights extracted threads of narrative from this web they reshaped to suit the needs of the moment. In the case of the tragedies, they were also performed in the context of providing ritual honors to the gods at festivals. This sacred component must always be taken into consideration when attempting to interpret a play’s potential meanings and messages.

Though the stories served a sacred function, altering details was not only permissible but possibly also expected to make the story relevant for the perceived needs of the community for which it was performed. Because the dating of Women of Trachis is uncertain, it is not possible to determine what pressures of the time the play may have been reacting to specifically. Nevertheless, the inscrutability of the gods and the impossibility of knowing their plans and intentions is a concern to which the play returns repeatedly.

Women of Trachis tells a piece of the larger myth of