The name of this Trojan princess is translated as "at war with her husband", although in ancient Greek mythology she is sung as a model of a faithful and loving wife. Her difficult fate is described by the ancient playwright Euripides in the tragedies "Trojanka" and "Andromache". Homer admired the power of this woman's love in his famous Iliad. The scene when Hector and Andromache say goodbye is considered one of the most emotional moments of the poem. The tragic story of lovers and the Homeric style inspired more than one generation of artists. Such ancient masters as Virgil, Ennius, Ovid, Nevius, Seneca and Sappho also wrote about Andromache. And the tragedy of Jean Baptiste Racine has long been a favorite work of theater playwrights.
Political union
Ancient myths say that Andromache, daughter of the Cilician king Eetion and wife of Hector, heir to the throne of Troy, lived in those distant and cruel times when the world was torn apart by aggressive wars. In order to defend their independence, many states had to enter into political alliances with other stronger kingdoms andprincipalities. And the marriage of the heirs to the throne, which also binds states by blood ties, was one of the most common political tools. The union of the daughter of Eetion and the heir to the throne of King Priam, who was the ruler of the influential state of Troy, gave the people of Cilicia hope for the support of the famous Trojan army in case of aggression from another state.
The Fall of Cilicia
Myths tell that the famous heir of Priam immediately inflamed with passion for his chosen one and now Andromache, as Hector's wife and his beloved, had the opportunity to influence the policy of Troy in the interests of her homeland. So it was until the celebrated hero Achilles appeared on the military scene with his Myrmidon warriors. He accepted the offer of the Greek king Agamemnon and joined his army, making him invincible. Cilicia fell and was plundered, and the king Eetion himself and his seven sons died at the hands of Achilles. Despite the fact that Andromache influenced the political mood of King Priam as the wife of Hector, Troy was unable to come to the aid of Cilicia, since the new alignment of forces called into question her own safety. Priam was forced to look for serious allies to confront Agamemnon.
Sparta as an ally of Troy
Despite the family tragedy, Andromache was happy with her beloved Hector. She was expecting the birth of her first child and hoped that her husband, famous in battles, would not have to take up arms in defense of Troy. The announcement aboutthat soon Hector and his younger brother Paris would have to go to Sparta to negotiate a military alliance, upset her by the inevitable separation from her beloved. But the wise Andromache, as the wife of Hector, the future king of Troy, understood the importance of this mission, so she let her husband go with a heavy heart and promised to meet him with her son in her arms. And perhaps an alliance with Sparta could have stopped the invasion of Troy, but love intervened. Prince Paris and the wife of the Spartan king Menelaus Helen fell in love. Paris secretly took his beloved out of Sparta, and instead of an ally, Troy received a fierce enemy in the person of King Menelaus, who sided with the Greeks.
Trojan War
King Priam did not abandon the son of Paris and Helen, despite the impending war, and Troy prepared for the siege. Hector's wife knew what the Greeks were capable of, and fearing for his life, she asked her son Astyanax to influence her husband on Priam and extradite the lovers to the Spartans, but Hector refused. Meanwhile, the troops of Agamemnon and Menelaus approached the invincible walls of Troy. The chances of surviving the troops of Priam were quite high, besides, the discord between Agamemnon and Achilles played into their hands, because of which the latter refused to participate in the war.
Everything changed the case: Achilles' best friend Patroclus decided to take part in the battle against Troy and, wearing the armor of the famous hero, led the Myrmidons into battle. Before the battle, Andromache, with her son in her arms, begs Hector, who leads the troops of Troy, to pay off and give Paris and his beloved into the hands of the Spartanking. After all, it was the flight of Helen to Troy that was put forward by Agamemnon as the main reason for the war. Hector does not heed the prayers of his wife and entrusts the fate of the kingdom and his gods. In the first battle, the Trojans win, and Hector kills Potroclus in a duel, mistaking him for Achilles because of the latter's armor.
Having lost a friend, Achilles returns under the banner of Agamemnon with the intention of destroying Hector, which he does by challenging Priam's heir to a duel. After killing Hector, Achilles tied his body to his chariot to further humiliate the Trojans and stretched it along the walls of Troy in front of King Priam and the grief-stricken Andromache, and then three more times around the tomb of Potroclus. In order to bury Hector with the honors befitting a prince, Priam had to negotiate with Achilles and pay a large ransom. At the time of the funeral, hostilities were stopped, which made it possible for the Greeks to come up with an ingenious plan to penetrate the walls of the city. Using wood from some of their boats, they built a huge horse figure known as the Trojan Horse.
Fall of Troy
After the funeral, the Trojans found the camp of the enemy empty, and in its place - a huge statue of a horse. Taking this as a gift from the gods, they dragged her into the city, thereby dooming themselves to death. Inside the statue was a shock detachment of the Greeks, who at the first opportunity interrupted the guards and opened the gates of the city to the troops of Agamemnon. Troy fell, and those of its citizens that did not die became slaves. Hector's wife, taken prisoner, also did not escape this fate. The Trojan princess became the slave of the son of Achilles Neoptolemus, and her son Astyanax wasthrown from the walls of the city.
The further fate of the Trojan princess
The unfortunate Andromache wished for death, but instead she was forced to drag out the existence of a concubine and give birth to sons to her fierce enemy. It must be said that Neoptolemus, who ruled Epirus, was very fond of his slave and the sons of Molossus, Piel and Pergamum, which caused terrible jealousy of the legitimate, but childless wife of Hermione. She tried to destroy Andromache and her children, but Achilles' father Peleus came to the rescue, having affection for his great-grandchildren. After the death of Neoptolemus at the hands of Ores in the battles near Delphi, Hermione went over to the side of her husband's enemy. Andromache remarried to Hector's relative Helena and remained to rule Epirus as queen and mother of the rightful heirs to the throne.
