Achilles and Polyxena in As Troianas, by Hélia Correia and Jaime Rocha: male and female time and kleos

Abstract

In As Troianas (2018), Hélia Correia and Jaime Rocha rewrite the aftermath of the fall of Troy, addressing as central episodes the distribution of female trophies and the sacrifices of Polyxena and Astyanax. The clear inspiration on Euripides is permeated by original options, and expressed with a sometimes comic vivacity, based on a mixture of colloquiality and lyricism. The prominence of the two Aeacids, and Pyrrhus’ obsessive evocation of his father’s deeds in successive arguments with Agamemnon, suggest a parallel with Seneca’s The Trojan Women. The Stoic’s play explores the contrast between the selfish brutality of Achilles and his son, and the moderation advocated by a more humanised Agamemnon. However, the king is forced to obey the whims of the gods, transmitted by the insensitive Calchas. Hélia Correia and Jaime Rocha’s Pyrrhus is contradictory – brutal with Polyxena but committed to the survival of Hector’s family –, and thus modern.
The authors continue to expose the horrors of “war and its enthusiasms” (Perdição – Exercício sobre Antígona, p. 40), which perpetuate a barbaric heroic model: in the prologue, through an innovative chorus of wolves, who present the cyclical human self-destruction as an absurd violation of the laws of Nature; and above all, throughout the play, by exposing the barbaric and immoral rage of Achilles, who intervenes as a spectre to impose the supremacy of Death over Life. Polyxena’s status of exceptional victim places her resistance within the feminist theme, already present in Hélia Correia’s previous plays.
In addition to the analysis of how As Troianas by Hélia Correia and Jaime Rocha drew inspiration from and innovated the creations of Antiquity – especially those mentioned above –, the absolute relevance of past reflections on the impact of war and heroism on women will be highlighted.