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Act I, Scenes i-ii
 

Troilus and Cressida

 William Shakespeare
 

Characters

 
Troilus -  A prince of Troy. The younger brother of Hector and Paris, he is a valiant warrior and an honorable man. He is also desperately in love with Cressida.
 
Cressida -  A beautiful young Trojan woman. The daughter of Calchas, a Trojan priest who defected to the Greek camp, she becomes Troilus's lover.
 
Hector -  A prince of Troy. The greatest warrior on the Trojan side--and matched in might only by Achilles himself--he is a hero to his entire city and is respected even by his enemies.
 
Ulysses -  One of the Greek commanders. A highly intelligent, even philosophical man, he is renowned for his cunning.
 
Pandarus -  Cressida's uncle. He serves as a go-between for Troilus and Cressida, acting as a kind of cheerful, bawdy pimp for his niece.
 
Thersites -  A deformed slave serving Ajax who has a vicious, abusive tongue.
 
Achilles -  The greatest of the Greek warriors, he is also an arrogant, vicious thug, who refuses to fight in the war whenever his pride is injured.
 
Ajax -  A Greek warrior, he is as proud as Achilles, but less intelligent and less skilled in battle.
 
Agamemnon -  The Greek general, and the elder brother of Menelaus.
 
Diomedes -  A Greek commander who seduces Cressida.
 
Paris -  A prince of Troy. His theft of Menelaus's wife, Helen, precipitated the Trojan War.
 
Menelaus -  A Greek commander, Agamemnon's brother, and the abandoned husband of Helen.
 
Helen -  Menelaus's wife. Her elopement with Paris led to the Trojan War.
 
Calchas  -  A Trojan priest, and Cressida's father. He defected to the Greeks in the early days of the war.
 
Aeneas -  A Trojan commander.
 
Nestor -  The oldest of the Greek commanders.
 
Cassandra  -  A Trojan princess and prophetess; she is considered mad.
 
Patroclus -  A Greek warrior. Achilles's best friend--and, it is suggested, his lover.
 
Priam  -  The king of Troy, and the father of Hector, Paris, and Troilus, among others.
 
Antenor -  A Trojan commander, he is exchanged for Cressida after his capture by the Greeks.
 
Helenus -  A prince of Troy.
 
Andromache  -  Hector's wife.
 
 
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