Hecuba is the elderly Queen of Troy and mother to nineteen children, having recently lost her husband, King Priam. She walks with a cane and is physically weak, yet she provides moral and emotional leadership to the surviving Trojan women. Assigned to be a slave to the deceitful Odysseus, she maintains a fierce intelligence. She challenges Helen's self-serving rhetoric and urges her daughter-in-law Andromache to cling to hope.

Andromache is a Trojan princess and the widow of the great hero Hector. She closely adheres to the social expectations of an ideal wife, she shows intense loyalty to her deceased husband, and she maintains proper mourning rituals even in captivity. Assigned as a concubine to the son of the Greek hero Achilles, she despairs over her fate and views death as preferable to slavery. When the Greeks demand her young son's execution, she cooperates to ensure he receives proper mourning rites.

Helen is a Spartan princess and the exceptionally beautiful former wife of the Spartan king Menelaus. Her decision to leave Sparta with the Trojan prince Paris sparked the ten-year Trojan War. Now a captive of the victorious Greeks, she uses highly persuasive, defensive rhetoric to argue that she is a victim of the gods, specifically Aphrodite, rather than the instigator of the conflict.

Cassandra is a Trojan princess and the daughter of Hecuba, cursed by the god Apollo with prophetic visions that no one believes. The other Trojan women view her as mad because she dances and sings joyful hymns about her enslavement. In reality, her celebration stems from her secret knowledge that her forced union with the Greek leader Agamemnon will bring about his violent death.

Talthybius is a Greek messenger who regularly brings instructions from the Greek commanders to the Trojan captives. He previously interacted with the Trojan royal family during the ten-year war. While he dutifully carries out harsh orders, he displays visible discomfort and sympathy for the Trojans' suffering.

Menelaus is the King of Sparta who launched the war against Troy to retrieve his wife, Helen, after she left with Paris. He arrives declaring his firm intention to execute Helen for her betrayal. However, his resolve wavers when faced with her physical presence and highly constructed arguments.

The Chorus consists of the surviving women of Troy, ranging from young girls to older matrons. They wait together to be loaded onto Greek ships and sent into slavery across the Aegean Sea. Through song and spoken verse, they react to the unfolding events and perform mourning rituals. They also express intense anxiety about which Greek cities they will be forced to inhabit.

Poseidon is the god of the sea who helped build the walls of Troy and maintained an affinity for the city. He expresses sorrow over the deserted shrines and the gore-stained streets. Angered by Greek sacrilege, he agrees to cooperate with his usual rival, Athena, to punish the Greek fleet on their voyage home.

Athena is a goddess who originally supported the Greeks during the Trojan War. She changes her allegiance after a Greek hero rapes the prophetess Cassandra inside her sacred temple. Outraged by the Greeks' failure to punish this act, she seeks Poseidon's help to create a massive storm to destroy their ships.

Astyanax is the young son of Andromache and the deceased Trojan prince Hector. As the last male heir of the Trojan royal line, he represents the final hope for the city's future. Because of this, the Greek commanders view him as a threat and demand his execution.

Hector is the deceased prince of Troy, son of Hecuba, and husband to Andromache. Though he died in battle before the play begins, his memory dominates the thoughts of his family. His massive bronze shield becomes a central prop, serving as a makeshift coffin for his executed son.

Paris is the deceased Trojan prince who famously judged a beauty contest between three goddesses, awarding the prize to Aphrodite in exchange for Helen. His decision to take Helen from Sparta to Troy initiated the ten-year war. His mother, Hecuba, once dreamed he would be a flaming torch that destroyed the city, a prophecy that has now come true.

Polyxena is a Trojan princess and the daughter of Hecuba. Though she does not appear on stage, her death at the hands of the Greeks serves as a point of grief for her mother and sister-in-law Andromache. Andromache performs rudimentary mourning rituals over her body before being taken captive.