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Andromache

Andromache was the wife of Hector, the son of King Priam of Troy and the greatest of the Trojan warriors. In the Iliad, the epic of the Trojan War* by the Greek poet Homer, Andromache is shown as a devoted wife and mother as well as a symbol of the tragic suffering that war causes innocent people.

During the war, Hector is killed by the Greek hero Achilles*. When Troy finally falls, the Greeks kill Andromache's infant son by throwing him from the walls of the city. Andromache is taken captive by Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, who makes her his wife. Together they have three sons—Molossus, Pielus, and Pergamus. Neoptolemus later takes a second wife, Hermione, who becomes very jealous of Andromache.

Neoptolemus is murdered, and Andromache marries Hector's brother Helenus, who rules a kingdom in the land of Epirus. After Helenus's death, Andromache returns with her son Pergamus to an area near Troy, where she eventually dies.

The suffering of Andromache provided inspiration for generations of writers, artists, and musicians. Her troubles with Hermione were the subject of plays by the ancient Greek writer Euripides* and the French playwright Racine, who lived in the 1600s.

See also ACHILLES; HECTOR; HOMER; ILIAD, THE; TROJAN WAR.