| Andromache | |
|---|---|
 Captive Andromache (detail) byFrederic Leighton | |
| Written by | Euripides |
| Chorus | Women ofPhthia |
| Characters | Andromache Maid Hermione Menelaus Molossus Peleus Nurse of Hermione Orestes Messenger Thetis |
| Original language | Ancient Greek |
| Subject | Andromache's life as aslave |
| Genre | Atheniantragedy |
| Setting | Phthia inThessaly (northern Greece) before the temple of Thetis. |
Andromache (Ancient Greek:Ἀνδρομάχη) is anAtheniantragedy byEuripides. It dramatisesAndromache's life as aslave, years after the events of theTrojan War, and her conflict with her master's new wife,Hermione. The date of its first performance is unknown. Some scholars place the date sometime between 428 and 425 BC.[1]Müller places it between 420 and 417 BC.[2] AByzantinescholion to the play suggests that its first production was staged outsideAthens, though modern scholarship regards this claim as dubious.[3]
During theTrojan War,Achilles killedAndromache's husbandHector.Homer in theIliad describes Andromache's lament, after Hector's death, that their young sonAstyanax will suffer poverty growing up without a father. Instead, the conquering Greeks threw Astyanax to his death from the Trojan walls, for fear that he would grow up to avenge his father and city. Andromache was made aslave of Achilles' sonNeoptolemus.
Years pass and Andromache has a child with Neoptolemus. Neoptolemus wedsHermione, daughter ofMenelaus andHelen. Even though Andromache is still devoted to her dead husband Hector, Hermione is deeply jealous and plots her revenge. Fearing for her life and the life of her child, Andromache hides the child and seeks refuge in thetemple ofThetis (who was the mother of Achilles).
Clinging to thealtar of the sea-goddessThetis forsanctuary,Andromache delivers the play'sprologue, in which shemourns her misfortune (the destruction ofTroy, the deaths of her husbandHector and their childAstyanax, and herenslavement toNeoptolemos) and her persecution at the hands of Neoptolemos' new wifeHermione and her fatherMenelaus, King ofSparta. She reveals that Neoptolemos has left for theoracle at Delphi and that she has hidden the son she had with him,Molossos, for fear that Menelaus will try to kill him as well as her.
A Maid arrives to warn her that Menelaus knows the location of her son and is on his way to capture him. Andromache persuades her to risk seeking the help of the king,Peleus (husband of Thetis,Achilles' father, and Neoptolemos' grandfather). Andromache laments her misfortunes again and weeps at the feet of the statue of Thetis. Thepárodos of thechorus follows, in which they express their desire to help Andromache and try to persuade her to leave the sanctuary. Just at the moment that they express their fearfulness of discovery by Hermione, she arrives, boasting of her wealth, status, and liberty.
Hermione engages in an extendedagôn with Andromache, in which they exchange a longrhetorical speech initially, each accusing the other. Hermione accuses Andromache of practisingorientalwitchcraft to make herbarren and attempting to turn her husband against her and to displace her. "Learn your new-found place," she demands. She condemns theTrojans asbarbarians who practiseincest andpolygamy. Theiragon continues in a series of rapidstichomythic exchanges.
WhenMenelaus arrives and reveals that he has found her son, Andromache allows herself to be led away. The intervention of the agedPeleus (the grandfather of Neoptolemus) saves them.Orestes, who has contrived the murder of Neoptolemus at Delphi and who arrives unexpectedly, carries off Hermione, to whom he had been betrothed before Neoptolemus had claimed her. The murder of Neoptolemus byOrestes and men of Delphi is described in detail by the Messenger to Peleus. The goddessThetis appears as adeus ex machina and divines the future for Neoptolemus' corpse, Peleus, Andromache and Molossus: Neoptolemus is to be buried in Delphi as a reminder of Orestes' crime; Andromache will be brought toHelenus to marry him; Molossus will go with his mother and become first in a line of kings; Peleus will join Thetis in the palace ofNereus as an immortal.
The odious character whichEuripides attributes toMenelaus has been seen as according with the feeling againstSparta that prevailed at the time atAthens.[4] He is portrayed as an arrogant tyrant and a physical coward, and his daughterHermione is portrayed as excessively concerned with her husband's faithfulness, and capable of plotting to kill an innocent child (of Andromache) in order to clear the household of rival sons for the throne; she is also portrayed as wealthy, with her own money, and this is said by some of the characters (notably Andromache and Peleus) to make her high-handed.Peleus curses Sparta several times during the play.
Andromache is largely seen as unpopular due to it being staged between more well-regarded plays, such asMedea andHippolytus, and more controversial ones, such asElectra andHerakles.[5]
In hisClassical Weekly review, Van Johnson praises the dichotomy between Andromache and Hermione and Orestes and Neoptolemus. What Johnson sees as surprising, given the ancient Athenian view towards women, is thatAndromache's female characters are its most developed. Similarly, the play's heroes are often those that suffer the most. Andromache and Molossus, though they survive Menelaus' attempts on their lives, are still enslaved by the narrative's end. There is also Peleus, who, in standing against Menelaus, is rewarded for his efforts with the murder of Neoptolemus, his only mortal relative, by his enemy's nephew, Orestes. In the end, Johnson views Euripides as having created a worthy sequel to Homer.[6]
On the contrary, Nancy Rabinowitz recounts the apparent disconnect betweenAndromache's three plot lines, the Andromache-Neoptolemus-Hermione triangle, the Peleus-Menelaus conflict, and the Neoptolemus-Hermione-Orestes triangle. In regards to the Andromache-Neoptolemus-Hermione triangle, she also notes that, with time, the boundary between the "good" and "bad" woman has blurred. In Euripides' time, Andromache's lack of interest and/or engagement in said triangle would have been praised while Hermione's jealousy towards the slave marks her as petty and childish. To a modern audience, the unequal roles of husband and wife is more apparent. Neoptolemus is allowed to have both women, while they are only allowed the one man, either as husband or as master.[7]
The full text ofAndromache at Wikisource (multiple English translations)
Andromache public domain audiobook atLibriVox