Women, Weird and Wonderful: Andromache and Hekabe (Hecuba)

As the “Best of all the Greeks”, Achilles’ role in the Trojan war was vital. After his death, the Greeks put their faith in his son Pyrrhus, the ancient equivalent of a Nepo-baby. They even promised him Hermione, daughter of beautiful Helen as his bride. Hermione however, had been engaged to her nephew Orestes, and wasn’t at all pleased with the change of plans. Even less so, when after the war, Pyrrhus brought home the former crown princess of Troy, Andromache, as his prize. Former fiancé Orestes wasn’t pleased either. He took drastic action, by unaliving Pyrrhus and taking Hermione back. Pyrrhus’ slave-concubine Andromache was then married off to Helenos, once her Trojan brother-in-law and now a seer for the Greeks. So she ended up as the wife of a traitor, which must have felt as painful as being a slave. Maybe she would have preferred the fate of her former mother-in-law, Hekabe. Her grief and rage had transformed her into a vicious dog. Which is why a female dog still serves as an insult for an angry of just a self-assured woman.

The Meeting of Orestes and Hermione, drawing, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy-Trioson,

Cleveland museum of Art, USA

Orestes killing Pyrrhus, fresco Pompeï, Italy

Did you know?

• Pyrrhus is also called Neoptolemus. He’s the son of Achilles and princess Deidamia of Skyros (who helped Achilles to hide, when the Greek generals came to enlist him).