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Andromache

Mythology
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

Wife of Hector in the Iliad, famed for her loyalty and grief; later enslaved by Neoptolemus, she embodies Trojan resilience and loss.

Detailed Definition
Andromache was the devoted wife of Hector, prince of Troy, and mother of Astyanax. After Troy’s fall, she became a slave to Neoptolemus and later married Helenus. Her grief and resilience epitomize the suffering of women in war. Poets invoke her to convey themes of loss, loyalty, and the enduring pain of survivors in the wake of heroic tragedy.
Example
Example in poetry:
Andromache mourns Hector in Homer’s Iliad, her lament becoming a model for epic grief; Euripides’ play Andromache explores her life as a captive after Troy’s fall; In Virgil’s Aeneid, Andromache appears in exile, still faithful to Hector’s memory; Ovid includes Andromache’s sorrow in Heroides as an epistle of loss; Romantic poets like Byron reference Andromache as the archetype of widowhood; Modern verse uses Andromache to examine trauma and resilience in war’s aftermath.
Additional Notes
Andromache, wife of Hector and later concubine to Neoptolemus, epitomizes Trojan grief and maternal resilience; her laments in Euripides’ plays and Virgil’s Aeneid make her a powerful voice for wartime loss and displacement—ideal for elegiac or post-war poetry; her name (“man-fighter”) ironically contrasts her passive suffering.
Also Known As
Wife of Hector Mourner of Troy Andromakhe
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