This autumn, Troilus and Cressida will transport its audiences into the heart of the Trojan War. Set seven years into the siege of Troy, Shakespeare wastes no time in diving into the longstanding feud between the Trojans and the Greeks. Whilst historians are sceptical that a ten-year-long Trojan War actually took place, Homer’s powerful depiction of the war in The Iliad inspired a fascination with the mythical conflict that has spanned centuries.

The exact details of the war vary from source to source. Shakespeare likely drew on a range of texts, including George Chapman’s translation of The Iliad (1598), William Caxton’s translation of the History of Troy (c. 1474) and medieval romances like Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (c. 1380s). To understand Shakespeare’s satirical take on classical history, let’s flash back to the key events that led up to the Trojan War. 

So, what caused the Trojan War in the first place? We can lay a lot of blame for the conflict on Paris, one of the fifty sons of King Priam of Troy and the brother of Troilus. The king of the gods, Zeus, decided that Paris should settle a dispute between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite as to who was the most beautiful (largely to avoid making the decision himself). Each goddess tempted Paris with a gift to win his favour. Hera promised great kingdoms; Athena offered insightful skills in warfare; and Aphrodite presented the most alluring prize of all – Helen of Sparta.

Helen was famed for being the most beautiful woman in the world. Shakespeare’s fellow playwright, Christopher Marlowe, notoriously had his Doctor Faustus describe Helen as ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’. It is perhaps less surprising, then, that Paris named Aphrodite the most beautiful goddess to secure Helen as his bride. There was just one small problem: Helen was already married to King Menelaus of Sparta. Clearly, this wasn’t enough to deter Paris, who took Helen from Sparta to Troy whilst Menelaus was away. Whether Helen had any say in this remains unclear. According to some classical sources, Paris abducted Helen, whilst others imply that she eagerly set sail for Troy with her new lover. 

Either way, it’s fair to say that Menelaus wasn’t particularly pleased when he arrived home to find his wife missing. And, unluckily for Paris, Menelaus was prepared for this exact scenario. Since Helen had already been abducted in her youth by Theseus, her father had made the men competing to marry her swear a solemn oath that they would assist her future husband if she was ever taken again. So, it was not difficult for Menelaus to rally troops to help him bring Helen home. Led by his brother, King Agamemnon, the Greek army included skilled military figures who star in Shakespeare’s play, including Achilles, Ulysses, Ajax, Nestor and Diomedes.  

Still, Menelaus’s recruitment of Greece’s so-called heroes got off to a rocky start. Two of Agamemnon’s commanders, Achilles and Ulysses (the Romanized name for Odysseus), initially tried to avoid the conflict entirely. Ulysses pretended to be mad, and Achilles disguised himself as a girl. Agamemnon had to send soldiers to trick both men into joining his forces. Whilst Trojan War narratives often represented Achilles and Ulysses as brave and noble heroes, this is clearly not how the story begins.

Eventually, the Greek forces gathered at the port of Aulis, ready to set sail for Troy. In William Caxton’s history of Troy (one of Shakespeare’s sources), the Greek and Trojan forces first send representatives to consult an oracle at Delphi to learn the outcome of the war. Achilles receives a prophecy promising a victory for Greece, whereas Calchas – Cressida’s father – is told of Troy’s destruction. Knowing that Troy will ultimately be defeated, Calchas defects to the Greek side, triggering a chain of events that will unfold in Shakespeare’s play.  

When the Greeks finally reached Troy, they found an impenetrable and well-fortified city. In the following years, each side experienced victories and losses with no end to the war in sight. By the time we meet these classical figures in Troilus and Cressida, years and years of siege warfare have led to disillusionment and infighting. Achilles – Greece’s best soldier – is refusing to fight and instead spends his days hanging out with Patroclus in his tent. Shakespeare is vague about Achilles’s reason for abstaining from the conflict, but it is hardly due to any deep moral principle. In classical sources, Achilles was simply annoyed with Agamemnon for taking Briseis, a beautiful Trojan woman whom Achilles had taken as his ‘war prize’. Meanwhile, the Trojans debate whether it would be easier just to return Helen. Whilst they decide to keep her in Troy, Hector – Troilus’s brother – challenges Greece’s best fighter to a duel and the Greek leaders choose Ajax, with the aiming of making Achilles so jealous that he returns to battle.  

Against this messy political backdrop, Troilus and Cressida attempt to protect their love for each other. Most classical narratives about the Trojan War, like Homer’s The Iliad, focus on the last years of the conflict. Admittedly, there is something quite exciting about a group of Greek soldiers smuggling themselves into Troy inside a giant wooden horse. But in Troilus and Cressida, Shakespeare resists telling an epic story about Greece’s victory over Troy. Instead, he offers a more satirical interrogation of what love, heroism and conflict mean after seven years of fighting. In the events that precede Troilus and Cressida, the so-called heroes of the Trojan War are driven by desire and vanity, play elaborate tricks to avoid fighting and switch loyalties when the going gets tough. Why then, Shakespeare asks, do we worship these classical figures? 

Troilus and Cressida, directed by Owen Horsley, plays from 26 September – 26 October 2025 in the Globe Theatre.

FINIS.