(), a daughter of Eetion, king of the Cilician
Thebae, and one of the noblest and most amiable female characters in the
Iliad.
Her father and her seven brothers were slain by Achilles at the taking of Thebae, and her
mother, who had purchased her freedom by a large ransom, was killed by Artemis. She was
married to Hector, by whom she had a son, Scamandrius (Astyanax), and for whom she entertained
the most tender love. (Apollod. 3.12.6.) See the beautiful
passage in Homer, Hom. Il. 6.390_502, where she takes leave of Hector when he is going to battle, and her lamentations
about his fall, 22.460, &c.; 24.725, &c. On the taking of Troy her son was hurled from
the wall of the city, and she herself fell to the share of Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), the son of
Achilles, who took her to Epeirus, and to whom she bore three sons, Molossus, Pielus, and
Pergamls. Here she was found by Aencas on his landing in Epeirus, at the moment she was
offering up a sacrifice at the tomb of her beloved Hector. (Verg. A.
3.295, &c. ; comp. Paus. 1.11.1; Pind. N. 4.82, 7.50.) After the death
of Neoptolemus, or according to others, after his marriage with Hermione, the daughter of
Menelaus and Helen, Andromache became the wife of Helenus, a brother of her first husband,
Hector, who is described as a king of Chaonia, a part of Epeirus, and by whom she became the
mother of Cestrinus. (Virg. l.c. ; Paus. l.c.,
2.23.6.) After the death of Helenus, who left his kingdom to Molossus, Andromache followed her
son Pergamus to Asia. She was supposed to have died at Pergamus, where in after times a heroum
was erected to her memory. (Paus. 1.11.2; comp. Dictys Cret.
6.7, &c.; Eurip. Andromache.) Andromache and her son Scamandrius were
painted in the Lesche at Delphi by Polygnotus. (Paus. 10.25, in
fin.) [L.S]