The Andromache combines two myths
from the aftermath of the Trojan war: one concerning Hector’s widow Andromache,
her life as the concubine of Achilles’ son Neoptolemus (Latin ‘Pyrrhus’), and
her eventual marriage to her former brother-in-law Helenus and settlement in
Epirus; and the other about Neoptolemus’ marriage to Hermione (the daughter of
Menelaus and Helen) and his murder by Orestes, to whom Hermione had originally
been betrothed. The two stories are intertwined in Euripides’ play with the
added plot of Hermione and Menelaus attempting to kill Andromache and her
illegitimate son by Neoptolemus (though unnamed in the play, this son is often
referred to by scholars as “Molossus”). The title role actually disappears
mid-way through the play, rescued from death by Neoptolemus’ grandfather
Peleus.
The reception of Andromache is as
broad and varied as that of any of Euripides’ plays, and French drama and
Italian baroque opera in particular retold and refashioned the myths of the
Andromache-Neoptolemus-Hermione-Orestes tetrad in a surprising number of
variations. There are some key plot features that stand out in Euripides’
version, which are significant in assessing its reception:
• Neoptolemus is married to Hermione, but Andromache is his
concubine;
• A salacious verbal duel occurs between the female rivals,
Andromache and Hermione, in front of a chorus of women;
• Various characters reiterate the belief that a man should
not have sexual relations with two women at the same time. The chorus women’s
thoughts on the subject express this concisely: “I will never praise double
marriages among mortals, nor sons by different mothers; it causes strife and
hostile pains for a house” (Andromache 465–8).
• When Andromache is threatened by Menelaus, it is her love for
her son (whose life is also threatened) that convinces her to yield to his
demands;
• Hermione has a famous breast-baring panic scene, in
dialogue with her Nurse;
• Neoptolemus is absent from the entire play (like Creon’s
daughter in Medea, and Aegisthus in Euripides’ Electra), and his corpse is
carried in only at the end for lamentation by his grandfather Peleus;
• Neoptolemus is murdered off-stage (and in Delphi) by
henchmen of Orestes, who plotted his murder out of jealousy for Hermione, with
whom Orestes elopes. It is noteworthy that Hermione asks Orestes to help her,
but at the same time Orestes had already laid a plot to eliminate her husband
even before meeting her;
• Peleus and Thetis
(Neoptolemus’ grandparents) and Menelaus all make brief appearances;
• The play ends with a prediction of Andromache’s marriage
to Helenus, their relocation to Molossia (in Epirus, at the modern border
between Albania and Greece), and of her son by Neoptolemus as a future king. In
Literature Scholars have noted that Euripides’ Andromache is itself an example
of the reception of Sophocles, whose Hermione (now fragmentary) preceded
Euripides’ Andromache by an unknown number of years.
Most agree that
the Sophoclean drama focused on Orestes’ murder of Neoptolemus so that Orestes
could marry Hermione; the play apparently included a chorus of Phthian women,
and a scene in which Peleus lamented over his grandson’s body. It has been
argued that Euripides, in composing the Andromache, engaged in a “metapoetic”
rivalry with Sophocles by repeating these basic elements and then adding the
additional plot of Hermione trying to kill her husband’s concubine and their
bastard son. In this way, Euripides created the dramatic incentive for the
argument between rival women in the same household, which remains one of the
most memorable scenes of the play. The first surviving instance of the
reception of Euripides’ Andromache in literature occurs four centuries after it
was first performed.
In Book 3 of Vergil’s Aeneid, Aeneas narrates how he and his
Trojan refugees were travelling by the coast of Epirus and heard a rumor that
Priam’s son Helenus was still alive, had married Andromache, and had succeeded
to the throne of Achilles’ son Pyrrhus (Greek Neoptolemus). They land at
Buthrotum and investigate, only to find Andromache herself making offerings at
altars in Hector’s name. Andromache is astonished to see Aeneas alive. In the
course of conversation Aeneas asks whether she is still Pyrrhus’ concubine
(Aeneid 3. 319), giving her the opportunity to relate the details of her life
since the fall of Troy.
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