MOTHER AND CHILD LAMENT in Euripides' Andromache

 MOTHER AND CHILD LAMENT

After Menelaus tricks Andromache into leaving the sanctuary of Thetis’ temple, his guards seize her and take both her and the child off to be prepared for execution. Euripides does this so he can depopulate the stage just enough and more importantly, so Andromache and her son can make a pitiful entrance.

The Lament sung by Andromache and her child requires a boy actor in addition to the regular three. Boys’ choruses competed at the City Dionysia, so competent soloists would have been available. Children appear in nine of Euripides’ extant plays and he is the only tragedian to give them speaking or singing parts.

From the reviews I have read of 2020’s Children in Greek Tragedy: Pathos and Potential by Emma Griffiths, her basic conclusion is that the importance of children in Greek tragedy has two social functions  (i) showing the family capable of repairing itself and establishing values sufficient for it to recover from the worst events, and (ii) suggesting that this can be done without the involvement, interference, or influence of the gods. How this helps with the exegesis of tragedy is unclear in the reviews.

Andromache:

Had’ ego kheras haimateras brokhoisi

keklemena pempomai kata gaias  

Child:

Mater, mater, ego de sa pterugi sungkatabaino

 

Andromache
sung
Here am I, hands bloodied with the tight bonds about them, being sent down to death.

Boy
sung
Mother, o mother, under [505] your wing I go down as well.

Andromache
sung
This is a cruel sacrifice, o rulers of Phthia!

Boy
sung
Father, come and help those you love.

Andromache
sung
[510] Dear child, you will lie below dead with your dead mother, next to her breast.

Boy
sung
Oh me! What will become of me? Unhappy are we, you and I, mother.