Character analysis
Andromache
in The Iliad by Homer
Andromache is Hector's devoted wife and King Priam's daughter-in-law, most notably featured in Book 6 of the Iliad, particularly in the poignant farewell scene at the Scaean Gates. While she doesn't fight on the battlefield, she powerfully represents the human cost of war, articulating the pain of those left behind.
Her journey shifts from desperate pleas to profound loss. In Book 6, she implores Hector not to return to battle, sharing the tragic tale of how Achilles killed her father Eetion and her seven brothers, leaving her reliant on Hector as her "father, mother, brother, and husband." Her infant son Astyanax instinctively recoils from Hector's shining helmet—a tender moment of domestic humor overshadowed by tragic irony—before Hector replaces it and lifts the child in prayer. Despite her desperate request, Hector, bound by duty and honor, leaves for battle.
Andromache reappears in Book 22, diligently weaving at her loom, unaware of Hector's fate outside the city walls. Upon hearing the cries of sorrow and rushing to the ramparts, she sees Achilles dragging Hector's body and faints, mourning not only for her husband but also for the grim future awaiting their son. Her lament concludes Book 24 alongside Hecuba's and Helen's, solidifying her place as the moral and emotional heart of Troy.
Her key characteristics include fierce maternal love, sharp political insight (she even offers tactical advice to Hector), and a profound eloquence in grief that rivals the speeches of any warrior in the poem.
Connected characters
- Hector
Andromache's husband and the center of her world. Their Book 6 farewell at the Scaean Gates is the epic's most intimate scene; she loses everything when Achilles kills him in Book 22, and her lament over his body in Book 24 is among the poem's most affecting passages.
- Achilles
Her greatest antagonist by consequence. Achilles killed her father Eetion and her brothers before the main action of the poem, stripping her of her birth family; he then kills Hector and desecrates his corpse, completing her destruction.
- Priam
Her father-in-law and king of Troy. They share the grief of Hector's death; Priam's ransoming of Hector's body in Book 24 gives Andromache the chance to perform proper funeral rites, a small mercy amid total loss.
- Helen
A sister-in-law whose presence in Troy is the root cause of the war and, indirectly, of Andromache's suffering. Both women deliver laments over Hector in Book 24, but their situations contrast sharply: Helen carries guilt, Andromache only grief.
- Paris
Brother-in-law whose abduction of Helen triggered the war that will destroy Andromache's family. His cowardice and self-indulgence stand in implicit contrast to Hector's sacrifice, deepening the injustice of Andromache's fate.
- Zeus
The divine force whose will shapes the war's outcome. Hector's prayer over Astyanax in Book 6 is addressed partly to Zeus, asking that his son surpass him in glory—a prayer Zeus will not answer, as the fall of Troy is fated.