Source edition
Euripides. Euripidis Fabulae, Vol. I. Murray, Gilbert, editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1902.
Source data
Perseus Digital Library · CC BY-SA 4.0
Cloned and adapted by Humanitext, with ongoing edits.
Summary
This Greek tragedy vividly depicts the suffering of Andromache, who has been enslaved following the fall of Troy, and the tangled network of jealousy and power among her captors. Set in Phthia in Thessaly, the drama centers on the life-threatening conflict between Andromache, the captive concubine of Neoptolemus, and his barren wife Hermione, who is backed by her father Menelaus. The plot begins with Andromache seeking sanctuary at the shrine of Thetis, only to be forced into a cruel choice between her own life and that of her child, until the intervention of the aged Peleus temporarily rescues them. However, the crisis escalates as Orestes arrives to exploit Hermione's panic, plotting the assassination of Neoptolemus at Delphi. In the end, as Peleus despairs over the tragic news and the corpse of his grandson, the goddess Thetis descends to offer divine prophecies of future hope and apotheosis, bringing a solemn and mythological resolution to this tale of survival and sorrow.