Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

When Troy fell, the Greek leaders divided the captive women. Andromache, widow of Hector, was given to Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus), son of Achilles—the son of the man who had killed her husband. In *Trojan Women* she learns her fate while still holding Astyanax; Talthybius then announces that Odysseus has swayed the vote to hurl the child from the walls, so that no heir of Hector remain. She must surrender the boy, endure the marriage-as-concubinage to her enemy’s son, and sail for Phthia (or Epirus in later Molossian stems). The allotment is thus double cruelty: sexual and dynastic possession by Achilles’ line, and the murder of Astyanax as policy. Later myth carries her to Neoptolemus’s house, the birth of Molossus, rivalry with Hermione, and eventual union with Helenus—but those are sequels. Here the story is the hour of casting lots and herald’s word: Hector’s wife becomes the prize of Achilles’ son.