General Note:  In contrast with the Iliad, Troilus and Cressida has as protagonistic the Trojans, not the Greeks.  This is not to say that the Greeks are the “bad guys;” the play steers fully clear of such black & white designations.

Troilus— Priam’s son, said to rival Hector in battlefield ability.  Falls in love with Cressida who is then shipped off to the Greeks in exchange for Antenor, a prisoner of War.  There is no record of Troilus prior to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.

Cressida— daughter of Calchas the turncoat prelate.  Her beauty is compared, throughout the play, to Helen’s, and she proves as wanton in taking up readily with Diomedes after her exile to the Achaean camp. There is no record of Cressida prior to Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.

Pandarus— Cressida’s uncle who acts as a broker / bawd,  enabling the affair between the titular characters.  Again, there is no actual record of Pandarus in Homeric, or any legend prior to the Middle Ages.

Hector— the most famous Trojan warrior serves as a mythic figure and a level head; in a play laregly concerned with love and honor, Hector’s portrait is the most flattering.  He does, of course, get brutally murdered by Achilles after killing Patroclus.  Interesting about Hector in T & C is his occasional reluctance to do battle, as all the other figures are entirely hawkish or occupied with amorous concerns.

Achilles— Shakespeare’s Achilles is fairly petty, characterized as a spoiled paragon of bullheadedness yet maintaining a degree of valor.  Less idealized, but otherwise mostly the same character from Homer.

Agamemnon— the Greek leader’s faults are not as visible in T  & C  as in most texts involving him.  With Nestor, Menelaus, and Ulysses, he provides the voice of the Greeks in politcal and strategic manuevering.

Ulysses— the Ithacan wanderer is displayed here in “statesman” mode, given to persuasive—if flowery—speech.  He emerges as the cleverest of the characters, unsurprisingly; for a surprise, though, he takes Troilus to spy on Diomedes’ wooing of Cressida.

Cassandra— only appearing in two scenes, she raves prophetically at her fathers and brothers.  This is the familiar Cassandra of the Iliad, serving as doomed seer.  Her only connections seem to be with the rest of the Trojan royals.

Priam— the king of Troy is painted as weary of the war, but resolved to see the conclusion.  Priam in this play is not much of a father, really, except in his taking pride in his children…male children anyway.

Ajax— Ajax is big, dumb, and proud.  He yields his reticence much more easily than Achilles does, and is rather easily manipulated by Ulysses’ machinations.

Thersites— he’s cunning, he devilish (even purporting to be in league with Satan himself), and he’s remarkably foul-mouthed.  But in the end, Thersites is a Fool, a cowardly servant who comments constantly and unrestrainedly on the war around him.  Also, he has a bit of a voyeuristic streak, tagging along after everyone in Act Five…especially wounded Troilus.

Aeneas— the power structure of Troy is revealed through Aeneas, who is treated with respect as a general but must still be subservient to the House of Priam.  Like Ulysses, he does not, as a character, give much indication of his further adventures.
 

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