The Trojan Women

Cassandra:
If God still lives, my marriage will be bloodier than Helen's.

Cassandra:
This truth stands firm... the wise will fly from war, but if war comes, to die well is to win the victor's crown.

Cassandra:
[to Hecuba] I know that I am mad, but mother dearest, now, for this one time, I do not rave.

Talthybius:
[to Hecuba about the ordered death of Astyanax] A herald who must bring such orders should be a man who feels no pity and no shame either... not like me.

Hecuba:
[to Helen] Never make gods out fools to whitewash your own evil.

Helen:
[to Menelaus] Am I allowed to speak against the charge? To show you that if I die that I shall die most wronged and innocent?

Menelaus:
I have come to kill you, not to argue with you.

Hecuba:
[ironically] Oh, hear her. She must not die unheard.

[last lines]

Hecuba:
Trembling body... old weak limbs... you must carry me on to the new day of slavery.

Hecuba:
Count no one happy, however fortunate, before he dies.

Hecuba:
I think those that are gone care little how they are buried. It is we, the living, our vanity.

Talthybius:
[rides up and dismounts; he walks slowly forward and stops some distance from Andromache] Wife of the noblest man that was in Troy... O wife of Hector, do not hate me. Against my will I come to tell you... [Andromache looks at him; he continues haltingly] The people and the kings have all resolved -...

Andromache:
What is it? Evil follows words like those.

Talthybius:
This child they order - - [he can't finish the phrase - he looks away, then through clenched teeth] Oh, how can I say it...

Andromache:
[presses her son against her] Not that he does not go with me to the same master -...

Talthybius:
No man in Greece shall ever be his master.

Andromache:
[stares at Talthybius, perplexed] But - - leave him here - - all that is left of Troy?

Talthybius:
I don't know how to tell you. What is bad words can't make better -...

Andromache:
[hoping against hope] I feel you kind. But you have not good news.

Talthybius:
[long pause, then he screams out] Your child must die! There, now you know the whole, bad as it is!

Andromache:
[silence. Then slowly, as if from the marrow of her bones, the scream comes - - wild, scaringly, rising from the dark roots of sound beyond words]

Hecuba:
[when some of the women try to help her up] Let me be. Kindness unwanted is unkindness.

Andromache:
[to Hecuba] Your dead Polyxena you weep for? What does she know of pain like mine? The living must have hope. Not I, not any more.

Soldier 4:
[talking about Helen] No matter what they said, Helen will get back home alive.

Soldier 5:
And she knows it.

Soldier 4:
They need her for the victory parade. A symbol of Greek strength.

Soldier 5:
A bloody trophy.

Soldier 4:
Who needs her for a trophy? There's all that gold.

Soldier 5:
[ironically] The Greeks don't go to war for gold. They find a cause. That's what Helen is - a cause!

Andromache:
[on learning of Astyanax's fate] O Greeks, you have found ways to torture that are not Greek!

Hecuba:
This is no longer Troy. And we are not the lords of Troy. Endure.

Hecuba:
[to Cassandra] Your sufferings, my child, have never taught you wisdom.

Talthybius:
[he's told Hecuba that Cassadra is to be Agammemnon's prize and concubine] A king's bed is not so bad.