The name of this Trojan princess is translated as “at war with her husband”, although in ancient Greek mythology she is praised as an example of a faithful and loving wife. Her difficult fate is described by the ancient playwright Euripides in the tragedies of the Trojan and Andromache. Homer admired the power of love of this woman 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 have inspired more than one generation of artists. Such ancient masters as Virgil, Annius, Ovid, Nevius, Seneca and Sappho also wrote about Andromache. And the tragedy of Jean Baptiste Racine has long been a favorite work of theatrical playwrights.
Political union
Ancient myths say that Andromache, the daughter of the Cilician king Eetion and the wife of Hector, the 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 and principalities. And the marriage of the heirs to the throne, which also binds the state by blood ties, was one of the most common political instruments. 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 by another state.
The fall of Cilicia
Myths tell that the famous heir to Priam immediately burned with passion for his chosen one and now Andromache, as the wife of Hector and his lover, had the opportunity to influence the policies of Troy in the interests of his homeland. So it was until the glorified hero Achilles appeared on the military stage with his warriors Myrmidon. He accepted the offer of the Greek king Agamemnon and entered his army, making him invincible. Cilicia fell and was plundered, and King Eetion and his seven sons perished at the hands of Achilles. Despite the fact that Andromache influenced the political mood of King Priam as the wife of Hector, Troy could not come to the aid of Cilicia, as the new alignment of forces cast doubt on her own security. Priam was forced to seek 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 illustrious husband would not have to take up arms defending Troy. The news that Hector and his younger brother Paris would soon have to go to Sparta to negotiate a military alliance afflicted her with the inevitable separation from his beloved. But the wise Andromache, as the wife of Hector, the future king of Troy, understood the importance of this mission, so she released her husband with a heavy heart and promised to meet him with his son in his arms. And perhaps an alliance with Sparta could stop the invasion of Troy, but love intervened. Tsarevich Paris and the wife of the Spartan Tsar Menelaus Elena fell in love. Paris secretly took his beloved from Sparta, and instead of an ally, Troy received in the person of King Menelaus a fierce enemy 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 a siege. Hector's wife knew what the Greeks were capable of, and fearing for his life, she asked her son Astianakt to influence her husband and give the Spartans in love, but Hector refused. Meanwhile, the troops of Agamemnon and Menelaus approached the indestructible walls of Troy. The chances of surviving Priam’s troops were quite high, and bickering between Agamemnon and Achilles played into their hands, because of which the latter refused to participate in the war.
Everything was changed by chance: Achilles' best friend Patroclus decided to take part in the battle against Troy and, putting on the armor of a famous hero, led the Myrmidons into battle. Before the battle of Andromache with his son in his arms, he begs Hector, who leads the troops of Troy, to pay off and give Paris with his beloved to the hands of the Spartan king. After all, it was Helen’s flight to Troy that Agamemnon put forward as the main cause of the war. Hector does not heed the pleas 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 armor of the latter.
Having lost a friend, Achilles returns to the banner of Agamemnon with the intention of destroying Hector, which he does by challenging Priam’s heir. Killing Hector, Achilles, to further humiliate the Trojans, tied his body to his chariot and held it along the walls of Troy in front of King Priam and heartbroken Andromache, and then three more times around the grave of Potroclus. In order to bury Hector with honors due to the prince, Priam had to agree with Achilles and pay large lenders. During the funeral, hostilities were discontinued, which enabled the Greeks to come up with a cunning plan to penetrate the walls of the city. Using a tree from some of their ships, they built a huge horse figure that went down in history as the Trojan Horse.
The fall of Troy
After the funeral, the Trojans found the enemy camp empty, and in its place - a huge horse statue. Perceiving this as a gift from the gods, they dragged her into the city, thereby condemning themselves to death. Inside the statue was a shock detachment of the Greeks, which at the first opportunity broke the guard and opened the gates of the city to the forces of Agamemnon. Troy fell, and those of her citizens who did not die became slaves. Hector's wife, taken prisoner, also did not escape this fate. The Trojan princess became a slave to the son of Achilles Neoptolem, and her son Astianakt was thrown from the walls of the city.
The fate of the Trojan princess
The unfortunate Andromache wanted death, but instead was forced to eke out the existence of a concubine and give birth to sons to her fierce enemy. I must say that Neoptolemus, who ruled Epirus, loved his slave and the sons of Moloss, Piel and Pergamum very much, which caused terrible jealousy of Hermione's legal but childless wife. She tried to destroy Andromache and her children, but Achilles Peleus, who had an affection for great-grandchildren, came to the rescue. After the death of Neoptolem at the hands of Ores in the battles near Delphi, Hermione switched to the side of her husband’s enemy. Andromache again married a relative of Hector Helen and remained to rule Epirus as the queen and mother of the legitimate heirs to the throne.