Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Andromache.
The gallery
Captive Andromache
Frederic Leighton, c. 1888
Monumental oil painting by Frederic Leighton, now in Manchester Art Gallery. Widowed and enslaved after the fall of Troy, Andromache stands isolated in black among a crowd waiting to draw water at a fountain — the fate Hector foresees for her in the Iliad, when he imagines his wife carrying water for foreign masters.
Andromache Mourning Hector
Jacques-Louis David, 1783
Oil painting by Jacques-Louis David, his reception piece for the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, in the collection of the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Andromache grieves beside the body of Hector laid out on his bier, one hand flung outward in protest, while the small Astyanax reaches up to console his mother.
Hector Taking Leave of Andromache
Angelica Kauffmann, 1768
Oil painting by Angelica Kauffmann, held by the National Trust at Saltram in Devon. In the famous farewell from Book 6 of the Iliad, Hector parts from Andromache and the infant Astyanax at the gates of Troy before returning to the battle from which he will not come home.
On screen
Troy
Wolfgang Petersen
Saffron Burrows' Andromache is the farewell and the widow — Hector's wife watching the duel that ends the Iliad's greatest defender.
The Trojan Women
Michalis Cacoyannis
Vanessa Redgrave's Andromache is Euripides' captive: the widow who learns Astyanax will die and that she herself is allotted to Neoptolemus.
Troy: Fall of a City
Owen Harris
The BBC/Netflix retelling keeps Andromache in the palace and on the wall — wife, mother, and the voice that begs Hector not to go.
L'Amour fou
Jacques Rivette
Rivette's four-hour film builds half its runtime around rehearsals of Racine's Andromaque — the Trojan widow as the play inside a modern marriage.
The Trojan Horse
Giorgio Ferroni
Luciana Angiolillo plays Andromache in Ferroni's peplum — Hector's wife among Troy's last household as the city falls.
In music & on stage
Ermione
Gioachino Rossini
Rossini's opera, after Racine, puts Andromache between Pyrrhus and Orestes — the Trojan widow as the prize that wrecks a Greek court.
Andromaque
André Grétry
Grétry's only tragédie lyrique sets Racine's Andromaque for the Paris Opera — the captive widow as the still centre of a jealous court.
King Priam
Michael Tippett
Tippett gives Andromache a lyric role among the Trojan women — Hector's wife as warmth and anxiety inside Priam's doomed choices.
Andromaque
Jean Racine
Racine's tragedy made Andromache a fixture of the French stage — the widow torn between Pyrrhus, Hermione, and her son's life.
In play
Andromache (play)
Euripides
Euripides' tragedy keeps the widow in Neoptolemus' house — Andromache as captive, mother, and survivor after Troy.
A Thousand Ships
Natalie Haynes
Haynes gives Andromache her own chapters among the Trojan women — the farewell, Astyanax, and the long captivity retold.
Troy (novel series)
David Gemmell
Gemmell's trilogy keeps Andromache among Troy's royal house — Hector's wife in bestselling heroic fantasy.
Troilus and Cressida
William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's bitter Troy gives Andromache a brief, faithful presence — Hector's wife urging him not to fight on the day he dies.