A work largely based on Homer's Iliad but with the focus shifted to Priam and his family. The portrayal of Hecuba is based on Euripides' Hecuba and Trojan Women rather than the Iliad. The account of Paris' early life is drawn from material we know to have been used by Euripides in his fragmentary play Alexandros (Brown in Dionysus Since 69, p.296). World premiere: 29 May 1962, Covent Garden Opera Company, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry: this performance at Coventry was broadcast on the BBC Third Programme in the evening of 29 May.