Andromache (play)
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| Andromache | |
 Captive Andromache by Frederic Leighton |
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| Written by | Euripides |
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| Chorus | Phthian Women |
| Characters | Andromache Maid Hermione Menelaus Molossus Peleus Nurse of Hermione Orestes Messenger Thetis |
Andromache (Greek: Ανδρομάχη / Andromachē) (c. 425 BC) is a play by Euripides. It follows Andromache during her life as a slave, years after the events of the Trojan War.
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[edit] Background
During the Trojan War, Andromache's husband Hector was slain by Achilles. Their child Astyanax was dropped off the Trojan walls by the Greeks for fear that he would grow up and avenge his father and city. Andromache was made a slave of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. These events are depicted in The Trojan Women, another play by Euripides. Years pass and Andromache has a child through Neoptolemus. However, Neoptolemus weds Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, and Hermione is very jealous of the relationship between Andromache and Neoptolemus. Fearing for her life and the life of her child, Andromache hides the child and seeks refuge in the temple of Thetis, mother of Achilles.
[edit] Story
The play starts with Andromache sitting by the altar of Thetis, mourning the fact that she has had to send her child away and the fact that Hermione has treated her badly because she had Neoptolemus' child. Even though Andromache is still devoted to her dead husband, Hector (killed in Trojan War), Hermione is deeply jealous and has resigned to getting revenge. Andromache has sent her son away so that Hermione and her father, Menelaus, can't kill the only heir to the throne. She is hiding in the altar so that she cannot be killed in the holy place. When Menelaus arrives and says that he has her son, Andromache resigns to their power and lets herself be led away. They are saved by the intervention of the aged Peleus, the grandfather of Neoptolemus. 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 death of Neoptolemus is announced. Thetis appears and arranges matters. The odious character which the poet attributes to (the Spartan) Menelaus has been seen as according with the feeling against Sparta which prevailed at this time at Athens.
[edit] Political Themes
The play comes off as extremely anti-Spartan; Menelaus is portrayed as an arrogant tyrant and his daughter Hermione as lecherous and murderous. Peleus curses Sparta several times during the play.
[edit] Translations
- Edward P. Coleridge, 1891 - prose: full text
- Gilbert Murray, 1901 prose, 1912 verse
- Arthur S. Way, 1912 - verse
- Hugh O. Meredith, 1937 - verse
- Van L. Johnson, 1955 - prose
- John Frederick Nims, 1958 - verse
- David Kovacs, 1994 - prose: full text
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