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Euripides: Andromache
Andromache , written in the early years of the Peloponnesian War, shows the effects of war on the conquerors and the conquered. The other main theme is the role and nature of women, explored through the conflict between the contrasting figures of Andromache and Hermione.
204 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
June 2, 2023
After reading book 6 of the Iliad, with the very moving scene between Hector and Andromache, I returned to Greek tragedy to read Euripides’ Andromache for the first time. For critics who think that a successful tragedy should follow Aristotle’s prescriptions in the Poetics, there is something very wrong with Euripides’ plot. The first part finds Andromache in Phthia. After the death of Hector and the fall of Troy, she was taken captive as a slave by Neoptolemus, the son of Hector’s killer Achilles. She gave birth to a son, Molossus, but after Neoptolemus married Hermione, daughter of the Spartan king Menelaus, he ceased having sex with her. But Hermione has not conceived a child. Whilst Neoptolemus has journeyed to Delphi to make amends at the shrine of Apollo (he had blamed the god of archery for the death of his father), the envious Hermione has accused Andromache of using witchcraft of make her infertile. Andromache takes refuge at the shrine of Achilles’ mother, the goddess Thetis. When Hermione and her father Menelaus threaten to kill Andromache’s son, Andromache leaves the sanctuary, but the father and daughter are insatiable and prepare to sacrifice Andromache and her son anyway. Their plans are interrupted by the boy’s great grandfather, Peleus, who prevents the slaughter and frees Andromache and her son, who take no further part in the drama. Menelaus announces that he has some unfinished business with a hostile neighbouring kingdom and exits the play. Hermione has an emotional dialogue with her nurse (nurses are favourite confidantes of Euripidean heroines) lamenting her likely fate when Neoptolemus returns and finds out what Hermione had been attempting against his favourite concubine and his son. Instead, however, who should arrive but Orestes, who had been Hermione’s original intended before Menelaus gave her in marriage to Achilles’ son instead. He takes Hermione with him, hinting that he’s laid plans for the Delphinians to settle Neoptolemus’ hash. After they leave the chorus sing an ode, reminding us amonst other things how Orestes avenged his father Agamemnon. Apparently, some time now passes and then grandfather Peleus arrives, having heard rumours of his daughter-in-law’s elopement. The chorus tells him that’s true and that Orestes had something nasty in mind for Peleus grandson Neoptolemus. Suddenly a messenger arrives from Delphi, one of Neoptolemus’ retinue. We get a most vivid messenger speech describing in detail how Neoptolemus was beset by an outraged rent-a-mob of angry Apollonians aroused by Orestes with false accusations of blasphemy (it’s not clear from the text whether Orestes was supposed to have been present at the affray in person), and after heroically defending himself was slain. The messenger departs and a funeral cortege arrives with the body of Neoptolemus. After a wholesale lament by Peleus, the play ends with an appearance by Peleus’ former consort the goddess Thetis, who promises a wonderful HEA, Great grandson Molossus will become the King of the Molossians, thus continuing Peleus’ line (and Hector’s as well) and as an extra, Zeus will grant Peleus immortality to live in bliss with his goddess wife Thetis and visit his son Achilles on the blessed isles.
I found Lloyd’s translation and notes very helpful. The translation by Niles from the last century is rather free but more poetic. I also used Stevens’s Oxford commentary. It is intended for more advanced students than I, but there are a lot of obscurities in the Greek text that perplex even scholarly readers, so I was glad to have it as well.
I found Lloyd’s translation and notes very helpful. The translation by Niles from the last century is rather free but more poetic. I also used Stevens’s Oxford commentary. It is intended for more advanced students than I, but there are a lot of obscurities in the Greek text that perplex even scholarly readers, so I was glad to have it as well.
January 25, 2026
IMAGE OF GREEK VASE THAT GOODREADS DOES NOT LET ME POST.
We have read this Euripides play in a group with the intention of comparing it to Jean Racine’s version which we will begin shortly.
Greek plays were written in trios and accompanied by a Satire, but only one such tryptic has survived (Aeschylus Oresteia) and we therefore do not know what two other plays and themes would have accompanied this Andromache, and as the subjects of trilogies were related, we only see one facet of the dramatic frieze Euripides would have presented. We also do not know the date and not even the location where it premiered. It was composed probably at around 428-425 and it may have been performed in the Dionysian theatre on the slope of the Acropolis.
This Andromache is somewhat uneven. Three sections can be easily identified. The first plays out the severe conflict between Andromache and Hermione with Peleus curiously supporting the enslaved but fertile Trojan woman versus his official Spartan daughter-in-law. The second part relates to the first although with a volte-face. The legal wife, Hermione, has surprisingly lost in the fight and has suddenly changed into a meek woman who seeks escape. His cousin and former beau, Orestes, a troublemaker, has added another violent death to his curriculum vitae and has had Neoptolemus killed in the Apollo shrine in Delphi. This is certainly stuff for a tragedy. But the final part brings a somewhat artificial (divine?) ending, smooths over the tragedy, and paves the way to the formation of the Molossian dynasty in Epirus and the continuation of the Achilles line – thereby opening new horizons.
What astounded me most was how vicious the confrontations between Hermione and Andromache were, which to a certain extent is to be expected - both fighting for the same man. But, even more strikingly, by the tone in the exchange between Peleus and Menelaus. Here we get all the bitterness from the Trojan War, not from the opponents in the conflict but from the Greek side – both. Peleus blames Menelaus for his inability to control his gallivanting wife and, penetratingly, by reminding that the war began for a woman who was not worth it and for the success of which an atrocious sacrifice, the assassination of Iphigenia, was necessary. Utter nonsense.
This play was composed during the protracted Peloponnesian war, and in this Peleus-Menelaus confrontation we can recognize the Athenian-Spartan rivalry. Many digs are directed against the Spartans and their women (No Spartan girl could ever live clean even if she wanted. They’re always out on the street in scanty outfits making a great display of naked limbs). Euripides however, is aware of what the action-driven Spartans thought of the demagogic Athenians – All you can ever do is talk, talk, talk.
We have read this Euripides play in a group with the intention of comparing it to Jean Racine’s version which we will begin shortly.
Greek plays were written in trios and accompanied by a Satire, but only one such tryptic has survived (Aeschylus Oresteia) and we therefore do not know what two other plays and themes would have accompanied this Andromache, and as the subjects of trilogies were related, we only see one facet of the dramatic frieze Euripides would have presented. We also do not know the date and not even the location where it premiered. It was composed probably at around 428-425 and it may have been performed in the Dionysian theatre on the slope of the Acropolis.
This Andromache is somewhat uneven. Three sections can be easily identified. The first plays out the severe conflict between Andromache and Hermione with Peleus curiously supporting the enslaved but fertile Trojan woman versus his official Spartan daughter-in-law. The second part relates to the first although with a volte-face. The legal wife, Hermione, has surprisingly lost in the fight and has suddenly changed into a meek woman who seeks escape. His cousin and former beau, Orestes, a troublemaker, has added another violent death to his curriculum vitae and has had Neoptolemus killed in the Apollo shrine in Delphi. This is certainly stuff for a tragedy. But the final part brings a somewhat artificial (divine?) ending, smooths over the tragedy, and paves the way to the formation of the Molossian dynasty in Epirus and the continuation of the Achilles line – thereby opening new horizons.
What astounded me most was how vicious the confrontations between Hermione and Andromache were, which to a certain extent is to be expected - both fighting for the same man. But, even more strikingly, by the tone in the exchange between Peleus and Menelaus. Here we get all the bitterness from the Trojan War, not from the opponents in the conflict but from the Greek side – both. Peleus blames Menelaus for his inability to control his gallivanting wife and, penetratingly, by reminding that the war began for a woman who was not worth it and for the success of which an atrocious sacrifice, the assassination of Iphigenia, was necessary. Utter nonsense.
This play was composed during the protracted Peloponnesian war, and in this Peleus-Menelaus confrontation we can recognize the Athenian-Spartan rivalry. Many digs are directed against the Spartans and their women (No Spartan girl could ever live clean even if she wanted. They’re always out on the street in scanty outfits making a great display of naked limbs). Euripides however, is aware of what the action-driven Spartans thought of the demagogic Athenians – All you can ever do is talk, talk, talk.
September 18, 2021
I did not love this play and found some of the abrupt shifts jarring. I felt somewhat vindicated (and also undermined my thoughts that I might have any unique perceptions) when I read the introduction after reading the play and discovered that my reaction was the same that many critics have had for at least several centuries.
Andromoche is about Hector’s widow in the aftermath of the Trojan War, now a slave to Achilles’ son Neoptolemus. Of course, the real conflict she has is not with her enslaver and rapist but with the wife he takes, Hermoine, who bitterly fights with her over his affections. It all starts out coherently and with a focused drama, largely centering around these two women, but then the plot jumps abruptly in various directions that do not have the Aristotelian unity of time and place, do not have much of an internal logic, and make it more about catching up with events than the unfolding of dramatic tensions.
I read the John Frederick Nims translation in the beautiful hardcover four volume The Complete Greek Tragedies edited by David Grene and Richard Lattimore.
Andromoche is about Hector’s widow in the aftermath of the Trojan War, now a slave to Achilles’ son Neoptolemus. Of course, the real conflict she has is not with her enslaver and rapist but with the wife he takes, Hermoine, who bitterly fights with her over his affections. It all starts out coherently and with a focused drama, largely centering around these two women, but then the plot jumps abruptly in various directions that do not have the Aristotelian unity of time and place, do not have much of an internal logic, and make it more about catching up with events than the unfolding of dramatic tensions.
I read the John Frederick Nims translation in the beautiful hardcover four volume The Complete Greek Tragedies edited by David Grene and Richard Lattimore.
December 17, 2021
One of many underrated Euripides' plays :)
May 30, 2022
to convey so much in so smaller text to behold eternity and have those words represented in for 2.500 years. theatre is for sure a powerful way to transmitt ideas.
June 30, 2016
Second reading
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews