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Troilus and Cressida

William Shakespeare

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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.