In the Mysts of Shadowed Mysteries...famous Women in Mythology

Andromache

The Trojan War
Before the Trojan war, Andromache was married to Hector, son of Priam and Troy's best warrior. They were happily married and had two children, Astyanax and Laodamas. It is said that she and Hector had a happy marriage, and she loved him very much. Many quote their good-bye scene in The Iliad to be the most beautiful.

"Dear husband," said she, "your valour will bring you to destruction; think on your infant son, and on my hapless self who ere long shall be your widow- for the Achaeans will set upon you in a body and kill you. It would be better for me, should I lose you, to lie dead and buried, for I shall have nothing left to comfort me when you are gone, save only sorrow. I have neither father nor mother now."

Hector replied, "Wife, I too have thought upon all this, but with what face should I look upon the Trojans, men or women, if I shirked battle like a coward? I cannot do so: I know nothing save to fight bravely in the forefront of the Trojan host and win renown alike for my father and myself....It may be that you will have to ply the loom in Argos at the bidding of a mistress, or to fetch water from the springs Messeis or Hypereia, treated brutally by some cruel task-master; then will one say who sees you weeping, 'She was wife to Hector, the bravest warrior among the Trojans during the war before Ilius.'"

-- Homer's The Iliad Book vi, as translated by Samuel Butler (abridged)

In the beginning of the war, Achilles took the city of Thebae, where many of Andromache's relatives lived. There, he killed her seven brothers, her father, and captured her mother. After being ransomed, he freed Andromache's mother, but later on she was killed by Artemis.

After the Death of Hector
Hector was killed by Achilles, whom dragged him behind his chariot afterward. At Hector's funeral, Andromache craddled his head and was sorrowful that their life together had ended too soon. She also predicted the fate of her son - he was to be thrown off a wall from the city in revenge for someone that his father had killed.

Since Andromache was a part of the "Trojan Spoils", she was give to Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, along with her children. It was decided, by the Greek counsil, that Astyanax should die, for the seer Calchas said that Astyanax was to going to avenge Troy should he live. Neoptolemus had already given both of Andromache's sons - both Astyanax and Laodamas - to Helenus, their uncle, and Astyanax was seized from him and killed. Laodamas was not mentioned nor killed. Astyanax's killer is still unknown. Many believe that it was Odysseus, others Neoptolemus, and still others believe the warrior was nameless.

Even though Neoptolemus and Helenus (brother to Hector) were not on the same sides of the war, they were friends. (Which is the most likely reason why Helenus recieved his two nephews from Neoptolemus.) Helenus instructed Neoptolemus to go to a very, very specific area with a house with fountains of iron, a roof made of wool, and walls that were made out of wood. This was Lake Pambotis, and Neoptolemus founded a city there. He had taken Andromache with him.

With Neoptolemus
Andromache was said to have, by then, fallen in love with Neoptolemus. She bore him Amphialus, Molossus, Pergamus, and Pielus. After a few year's time, Neoptolemus left Andromache and his four children in Epeirus to go back to Phthia, where he claimed Hermione for his wife. After being married to her for about a year, he traveled to the Oracle at Delphi to find out why she had not gotten pregnant. However, at the Altar of Apollo, he was stabbed, just as Orestes ordered. Orestes killed him because, originally, Hermione was promised to be his wife.

After the Death of Neoptolemus
Neoptolemus had already told others what to do with his "property" (his children, wife, spoils, ect.) when he died. At this instruction, Andromache was forced to marry Helenus. With him, she had another child, Cestrinus. When Helenus died, Andromache went with her son, Pergamus, to Asia Minor. He built her a sanctuary there, within his own town Pergamus.

Andromache was a very important women. She was mother to many royal lines. Most of her children also founded cities. She was featured in may Greek plays, as well as many of the Greek Epics.

Bibliography
Robert E. Bell's Women of Classical Mythology - Published 1991
Hektor and Andromache - The Illiad translation