Andromache
Andromache
Princess of Thebe in Mysia and wife of Hector in the Greek epic tradition, Andromache is the figure of the woman and mother struck by the Trojan War. Immortalized by Homer in the Iliad and by Racine in his eponymous tragedy (1667), she embodies conjugal fidelity and grief.
Famous Quotes
« Must I forget him, if he remembers no more? — attributed to Andromache by Racine (Act I, Scene IV) »
« Come, my son, let me embrace you once more — an evocation of the Racinian tradition »
Key Facts
- Daughter of Eetion, king of Thebe in Mysia, according to the Greek epic tradition transmitted by Homer
- Her husband Hector is killed by Achilles beneath the walls of Troy (the central scene of the Iliad, Book XXII)
- Their farewell on the ramparts of Troy (Iliad, Book VI) is one of the most celebrated scenes in ancient literature
- After the fall of Troy, she becomes the captive of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), son of Achilles, according to post-Homeric traditions
- Racine made her the heroine of his tragedy Andromache (1667), a masterpiece of French Classicism
Works & Achievements
Homer dedicates the most moving scenes of the epic to Andromache. The farewell scene in Book VI and the lament in Book XXII have forever shaped the image of the grieving wife and mother.
Euripides portrays Andromache as a slave of Neoptolemus, threatened by Hermione. The play explores her resistance and dignity in the face of the humiliations of captivity.
In this anti-war tragedy, Andromache witnesses the death of her son Astyanax. She embodies the absolute grief of a mother stripped of everything.
The encounter between Aeneas and Andromache at Buthrotum is one of the most poignant episodes in Latin epic poetry. Andromache appears trapped by her own memories, recreating Troy in exile.
A masterpiece of French classical theater, the play places Andromache at the center of a chain of tragic passions. She becomes the embodiment of loyalty and maternal sacrifice in French culture.
Baudelaire invokes Andromache in this poem of melancholy and exile: "Andromache, I think of you!" She comes to symbolize all the exiles and the uprooted of the modern world.
Anecdotes
In Homer's Iliad, Andromache tries to hold Hector back before he returns to battle, reminding him that he is her father, her mother, her brother, and her husband. This Farewell scene in Book VI is one of the most moving in all of ancient literature: little Astyanax bursts into tears at the sight of his father's crested helmet, and Hector must remove it to comfort the child.
According to the epic tradition, Andromache was the daughter of Eetion, king of Thebes in Mysia. Achilles slew her father and her seven brothers during the sack of the city, then sold her mother into slavery. Andromache thus found herself bereft of father and brothers even before Hector's death, making her the ultimate figure of accumulated grief.
After the fall of Troy, Andromache was assigned as a slave to Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles — the man whose father had killed her husband. She bore him several sons. Later, as Virgil recounts in the Aeneid, Aeneas finds her at Buthrotum in Epirus, where she rules alongside Helenus, another Trojan exile, and has built a miniature Troy, forever turned toward her past.
In Racine's tragedy (1667), Andromache stands at the center of a chain of passions: Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus) loves her, and she resists in order to remain faithful to Hector's memory and protect her son Astyanax. She ultimately agrees to a sham marriage, resolved to take her own life after the ceremony so as not to betray her oath to Hector — embodying the tension between conjugal duty and maternal instinct.
Primary Sources
"Andromache came to him weeping, and with her a handmaid carrying at her bosom the little child, the tender son of Hector [...] Hector smiled as he looked upon his son, but Andromache stood close beside him weeping, and she clasped his hand."
"Andromache had as yet heard nothing [...] But when from the tower she saw and recognized Hector being dragged before the city, dark night covered her eyes and she fell backward."
"Andromache was offering funeral gifts to the ashes and the shade of Hector [...] She stood frozen, her gaze fixed upon me, and the warmth left her bones."
"Take me, carry me away as a slave to the ends of the earth [...] I weep for Hector, and for you, my child, your brief life coming to its end."
"I was making my way to the place where my son is kept. Since once a day you allow me to see him, alas! I was going, my lord, to weep with him."
Key Places
Andromache's hometown in Asia Minor, ruled by her father Eetion. Destroyed by Achilles, it represents Andromache's first great loss — before the Trojan War had even reached her.
The legendary city of Asia Minor where Andromache lived as Hector's wife. It was from Troy's walls that she witnessed her husband's death, and then the fall of her adopted homeland.
The mythic site of Hector and Andromache's farewell in the Iliad. It is here that Hector leaves his family to face Achilles — and never returns.
A city in Epirus where Andromache settles with Helenus after the death of Neoptolemus, according to Virgil. There she recreates a small Troy in exile, a sign of her melancholy devotion to the past.
The kingdom of Neoptolemus to which Andromache is taken as a slave after the fall of Troy. It is the setting of Euripides' tragedy Andromache.
Gallery
Andromaquelabel QS:Len,"Andromaque"label QS:Lfr,"Andromaque"
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Georges Rochegrosse
Hector's Departure from Andromache
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein
Portraits of the seventeenth century, historic and literary
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Sainte-Beuve, Charles Augustin, 1804-1869 Wormeley, Katharine Prescott
French: Portrait de Mme Thénard, dite "la Grande" (1757-1849), sociétaire de la Comédie Française, dans le rôle d'Hermione dans "Andromaque" Portrait de Mme Thénardtitle QS:P1476,fr:"Portrait de Mme
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Attributed to Adèle Romany
French: Andromaque et Pyrrhus Andromaque et Pyrrhustitle QS:P1476,fr:"Andromaque et Pyrrhus "label QS:Lfr,"Andromaque et Pyrrhus "label QS:Lit,"Andromaca e Pirro"label QS:Len,"Andromaque et Pyrrhus"
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Pierre-Narcisse Guérin
L'Aphrodite marseillaise du Musée de Lyon : statue archaique grecque orientale du VIe siècle avant J.-C.
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Bazin, Hippolyte, 1855-1910 Musée des beaux-arts (Lyon, France)
Quinze journées au Salon de peinture et de sculpture : (année 1883)
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — About, Edmond, 1828-1885
Explication des ouvrages de peinture et dessins, sculpture, architecture et gravure, des artistes vivans
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Société des artistes français. Salon Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (France) Salon (Exhibition : Paris
Explication des ouvrages de peinture et dessins, sculpture, architecture et gravure, des artistes vivans
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Société des artistes français. Salon Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture (France) Salon (Exhibition : Paris
Historical law-tracts
Wikimedia Commons, Public domain — Kames, Henry Home, Lord, 1696-1782 John Adams Library (Boston Public Library) BRL Adams, John, 1735-1826, former ow