Andromache
(Euripides)
Andromache was the wife of Hector, the hero of Troy who was killed during the Trojan War with the Greeks. Once the envied Queen of Troy, she has become the most pitiable. When her husband Hector was killed, she also saw the death of her baby, Astyanax who was thrown from the battlements by the Greek soldiers.
After the Trojans lost the devastating war, Andromache was taken as a war prize by Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Neoptolemus has gone off to the oracle at Delphi and his jealous wife, Hermione, uses his absence to get rid of his new concubine Andromache and her son. Despite Andromache?s constant plea to Hermione that she has no desire for Neoptolemus and she would rather be left alone herself, Hermione is consumed by jealousy of the Trojan princess, and blames her for any problems between Hermione and her husband, as well as the fact that she is childless. Hermione plots with her father Menelaus to seize and kill Andromache. They bind Andromache and her infant son and are only rescued at the last minute by Neoptolemus? grandfather, Peleus, who takes them under his protection. Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, arrives as a visitor to Neoptolemus? household. Hermione now lives in fear of Neoptolemus? wrath and entreats Orestes to take her away with him. Orestes? consents and Hermione runs away. However, news soon comes to the household that Neoptolemus has been killed by the citizens of Delphi. The demi-goddess Thetis, mother of Achilles and grandmother of Neoptolemus, now orders Neoptolemus? burial in Delphi and commands that Andromache and her son be given their freedom.
Euripides? Andromache is not as dramatically compelling as Racine?s 17th Century adaptation and the characters remain mainly unsympathetic to a modern audience. Meneleus and Hermione are unlikable characters and Meneleus, married to Helen, was often considered the cause of the Trojan War which created so much destruction among both the Greeks and the Trojans. While the play?s ending seems hackneyed and contrived, Andromache remains a fitting example of Euripides? anti-war treatment of martial themes.
Resumos Relacionados
- The Trojan Women
- The Iliad
- The Iliad
- Agamemnon
- The Iliad
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