Listed 8 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for destination: "THIVI Ancient city TURKEY".
It was a city of the Cilicians located on the foot of Mt. Placus and seat of Eetion, father of Andomache, which was sacked by Achilles (Il. 1.366, 6.397, 22.479).
Andromache, wife of Hector, was the daughter of Eetion, king of Thebes in Cilicia, whom Achilles killed as well as her seven brothers (Il. 6.371, 6.415). After the sack of Troy, she was given as a plunder to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, and after his death she became wife of Helenus.
...Hektor hurried from the house when she had done speaking, and went down the
streets by the same way that he had come. When he had gone through the city and
had reached the Scaean gates through which he would go out on to the plain, his
wife came running towards him, Andromache, daughter of great Eetion who ruled
in Thebe under the wooded slopes of Mount Plakos, and was king of the Cilicians.
His daughter had married Hektor, and now came to meet him with a nurse who carried
his little child in her bosom - a mere babe. Hektor's darling son, and lovely
as a star. Hektor had named him Skamandrios, but the people called him Astyanax,
for his father stood alone as chief guardian of Ilion. Hektor smiled as he looked
upon the boy, but he did not speak, and Andromache stood by him weeping and taking
his hand in her own. "Dear husband", said she, "your valor 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 [akhos]. I have neither father
nor mother now. Achilles slew my father when he sacked Thebe the goodly city of
the Cilicians. He slew him, but did not for very shame despoil him; when he had
burned him in his wondrous armor, he raised a barrow over his ashes and the mountain
nymphs, daughters of aegis-bearing Zeus, planted a grove of elms about his tomb
[sema]. I had seven brothers in my father's house, but on the same day they all
went within the house of Hades. Achilles killed them as they were with their sheep
and cattle. My mother - her who had been queen of all the land under Mount Plakos
- he brought hither with the spoil, and freed her for a great sum, but the archer
- queen Artemis took her in the house of your father. Nay - Hektor - you who to
me are father, mother, brother, and dear husband - have mercy upon me; stay here
upon this wall; make not your child fatherless, and your wife a widow; as for
the host, place them near the fig-tree, where the city can be best scaled, and
the wall is weakest. Thrice have the bravest of them come thither and assailed
it, under the two Ajaxes, Idomeneus, the sons of Atreus, and the brave son of
Tydeus, either of their own bidding, or because some soothsayer had told them".
And Hektor answered, "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 [kleos] alike for my father and myself. Well
do I know that the day will surely come when mighty Ilion shall be destroyed with
Priam and Priam's people, but I grieve for none of these - not even for Hecuba,
nor King Priam, nor for my brothers many and brave who may fall in the dust before
their foes - for none of these do I grieve as for yourself when the day shall
come on which some one of the Achaeans shall rob you for ever of your freedom,
and bear you weeping away. 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 Hektor, the bravest warrior among the Trojans during the war
before Ilion'. On this your tears will break forth anew for him who would have
put away the day of captivity from you. May I lie dead under the barrow that is
heaped over my body ere I hear your cry as they carry you into bondage".
He stretched his arms towards his child, but the boy cried and nestled
in his nurse's bosom, scared at the sight of his father's armor, and at the horse-hair
plume that nodded fiercely from his helmet. His father and mother laughed to see
him, but Hektor took the helmet from his head and laid it all gleaming upon the
ground. Then he took his darling child, kissed him, and dandled him in his arms,
praying over him the while to Zeus and to all the gods. "Zeus", he cried, "grant
that this my child may be even as myself, chief among the Trojans; let him be
not less excellent in strength, and let him rule Ilion with his might. Then may
one say of him as he comes from battle, 'The son is far better than the father'.
May he bring back the blood-stained spoils of him whom he has laid low, and let
his mother's heart be glad".
With this he laid the child again in the arms of his wife, who took
him to her own soft bosom, smiling through her tears. As her husband watched her
his heart yearned towards her and he caressed her fondly, saying, "My own wife,
do not take these things too bitterly to heart. No one can hurry me down to Hades
before my time, but if a man's hour is come, be he brave or be he coward, there
is no escape for him when he has once been born. Go, then, within the house, and
busy yourself with your daily duties, your loom, your distaff, and the ordering
of your servants; for war is man's matter, and mine above all others of them that
have been born in Ilion".
He took his plumed helmet from the ground, and his wife went back
again to her house, weeping bitterly and often looking back towards him. When
she reached her home she found her maidens within, and bade them all join in her
lament; so they mourned Hektor in his own house though he was yet alive, for they
deemed that they should never see him return safe from battle, and from the furious
hands of the Achaeans. (passage
in Homer, Il.vi.390-502)
...Hektor's wife had as yet heard nothing, for no one had come to tell her that
her husband had remained without the gates. She was at her loom in an inner part
of the house, weaving a double purple web, and embroidering it with many flowers.
She told her maids to set a large tripod on the fire, so as to have a warm bath
ready for Hektor when he came out of battle; poor woman, she knew not that he
was now beyond the reach of baths, and that Athena had laid him low by the hands
of Achilles. She heard the cry coming as from the wall, and trembled in every
limb; the shuttle fell from her hands, and again she spoke to her waiting-women.
"Two of you", she said, "come with me that I may learn what it is that has befallen;
I heard the voice of my husband's honored mother; my own heart beats as though
it would come into my mouth and my limbs refuse to carry me; some great misfortune
for Priam's children must be at hand. May I never live to hear it, but I greatly
fear that Achilles has cut off the retreat of brave Hektor and has chased him
on to the plain where he was singlehanded; I fear he may have put an end to the
reckless daring which possessed my husband, who would never remain with the body
of his men, but would dash on far in front, foremost of them all in valor".
Her heart beat fast, and as she spoke she flew from the house like
a maniac, with her waiting-women following after. When she reached the battlements
and the crowd of people, she stood looking out upon the wall, and saw Hektor being
borne away in front of the city - the horses dragging him without heed or care
over the ground towards the ships of the Achaeans. Her eyes were then shrouded
as with the darkness of night and she fell fainting backwards, losing her life-breath
[psukhe]. She tore the tiring from her head and flung it from her, the frontlet
and net with its plaited band, and the veil which golden Aphrodite had given her
on the day when Hektor took her with him from the house of Eetion, after having
given countless gifts of wooing for her sake. Her husband's sisters and the wives
of his brothers crowded round her and supported her, for she was fain to die in
her distraction; when she again presently breathed and came to herself, she sobbed
and made lament among the Trojans saying, ‘Woe is me, O Hektor; woe, indeed, that
to share a common lot we were born, you at Troy in the house of Priam, and I at
Thebes under the wooded mountain of Plakos in the house of Eetion who brought
me up when I was a child - ill-starred sire of an ill-starred daughter - would
that he had never begotten me. You are now going into the house of Hades under
the secret places of the earth, and you leave me a sorrowing widow in your house.
The child, of whom you and I are the unhappy parents, is as yet a mere infant.
Now that you are gone, O Hektor, you can do nothing for him nor he for you.
Even though he escape the horrors of this woeful war with the Achaeans,
yet shall his life henceforth be one of labor [ponos] and sorrow, for others will
seize his lands. The day that robs a child of his parents severs him from his
own kind; his head is bowed, his cheeks are wet with tears, and he will go about
destitute among the friends of his father, plucking one by the cloak and another
by the shirt. Some one or other of these may so far pity him as to hold the cup
for a moment towards him and let him moisten his lips, but he must not drink enough
to wet the roof of his mouth; then one whose parents are alive will drive him
from the table with blows and angry words. 'Out with you', he will say, 'you have
no father here', and the child will go crying back to his widowed mother - he,
Astyanax, who erewhile would sit upon his father's knees, and have none but the
daintiest and choicest morsels set before him. When he had played till he was
tired and went to sleep, he would lie in a bed, in the arms of his nurse, on a
soft couch, knowing neither want nor care, whereas now that he has lost his father
his lot will be full of hardship - he, whom the Trojans name Astyanax, because
you, O Hektor, were the only defense of their gates and battlements. The wriggling
writhing worms will now eat you at the ships, far from your parents, when the
dogs have glutted themselves upon you. You will lie naked, although in your house
you have fine and goodly raiment made by hands of women. This will I now burn;
it is of no use to you, for you can never again wear it, and thus you will have
glory [kleos] among the Trojans both men and women". In such wise did she cry
aloud amid her tears, and the women joined in her lament. (passage
in Homer Il.xxii.437, &c)
...At this there was not man nor woman left in the city, so great a sorrow [penthos]
had possessed them. Hard by the gates they met Priam as he was bringing in the
body (of Hektor). Hektor's wife and his mother were the first to mourn him: they
flew towards the wagon and laid their hands upon his head, while the crowd stood
weeping round them. They would have stayed before the gates, weeping and lamenting
the livelong day to the going down of the sun, had not Priam spoken to them from
the chariot and said, "Make way for the mules to pass you. Afterwards when I have
taken the body home you shall have your fill of weeping".
On this the people stood asunder, and made a way for the wagon. When
they had borne the body within the house they laid it upon a bed and seated minstrels
round it to lead the dirge, whereon the women joined in the sad music of their
lament. Foremost among them all Andromache led their wailing as she clasped the
head of mighty Hektor in her embrace. "Husband", she cried, "you have died young,
and leave me in your house a widow; he of whom we are the ill-starred parents
is still a mere child, and I fear he may not reach manhood. Ere he can do so our
city will be razed and overthrown, for you who watched over it are no more - you
who were its savior, the guardian of our wives and children. Our women will be
carried away captives to the ships, and I among them; while you, my child, who
will be with me will be put to some unseemly tasks, working for a cruel master.
Or, may be, some Achaean will hurl you (O miserable death) from our walls, to
avenge some brother, son, or father whom Hektor slew; many of them have indeed
bitten the dust at his hands, for your father's hand in battle was no light one.
Therefore do the people mourn him. You have left, O Hektor, sorrow unutterable
to your parents, and my own grief [penthos] is greatest of all, for you did not
stretch forth your arms and embrace me as you lay dying, nor say to me any words
that might have lived with me in my tears night and day for evermore".
Bitterly did she weep the while, and the women joined in her lament.
Hecuba in her turn took up the strains of woe. "Hektor", she cried, "dearest to
me of all my children. So long as you were alive the gods loved you well, and
even in death they have not been utterly unmindful of you; for when Achilles took
any other of my sons, he would sell him beyond the seas, to Samos Imbros or rugged
Lemnos; and when he had taken away with his sword your life-breath [psukhe] as
well, many a time did he drag you round the sepulcher [sema] of his comrade -
though this could not give him life - yet here you lie all fresh as dew, and comely
as one whom Apollo has slain with his painless shafts".
Thus did she too speak through her tears with bitter moan, and then
Helen for a third time took up the strain of lamentation. "Hektor", said she,
"dearest of all my brothers-in-law-for I am wife to Alexander who brought me hither
to Troy - would that I had died ere he did so - twenty years are come and gone
since I left my home and came from over the sea, but I have never heard one word
of insult or unkindness from you. When another would chide with me, as it might
be one of your brothers or sisters or of your brothers' wives, or my mother-in-law
- for Priam was as kind to me as though he were my own father - you would rebuke
and check them with words of gentleness and goodwill. Therefore my tears flow
both for you and for my unhappy self, for there is no one else in Troy who is
kind to me, but all shrink and shudder as they go by me".
She wept as she spoke and the vast population [demos] that was gathered
round her joined in her lament. Then King Priam spoke to them saying, "Bring wood,
O Trojans, to the city, and fear no cunning ambush of the Argives, for Achilles
when he dismissed me from the ships gave me his word that they should not attack
us until the morning of the twelfth day".
Forthwith they yoked their oxen and mules and gathered together before
the city. Nine days long did they bring in great heaps wood, and on the morning
of the tenth day with many tears they took brave Hektor forth, laid his dead body
upon the summit of the pile, and set the fire thereto. Then when the child of
morning rosy-fingered dawn appeared on the eleventh day, the people again assembled,
round the pyre of mighty Hektor. When they were got together, they first quenched
the fire with wine wherever it was burning, and then his brothers and comrades
with many a bitter tear gathered his white bones, wrapped them in soft robes of
purple, and laid them in a golden urn, which they placed in a grave [sema] and
covered over with large stones set close together. Then they built a tomb [sema]
hurriedly over it keeping guard on every side lest the Achaeans should attack
them before they had finished. When they had heaped up the barrow they went back
again into the city, and being well assembled they held high feast in the house
of Priam their king. (passage
in Homer Il.xxiv.707, &c)
Andromache, 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. iii. 11.6). See the beautiful passage in Homer, Il. vi. 390-502, where she takes leave of Hector when he is going to battle, and her lamentations about his fall, xxii. 460, &c.; xxiv. 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 Aeneas on his landing in Epeirus, at the moment she was offering up a sacrifice at the tomb of her beloved Hector (Virg. Aen. iii. 295, &c.; comp. Paus. i. 11.1; Pind. Nem. iv. 82, vii. 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., ii. 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. i. 11.2; comp. Dictys Cret. vi. 7, &c.; Eurip. Andromache). Andromache and her son Scamandrius were painted in the Lesche at Delphi by Polygnotus (Paus. x. 25, in fin.).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Editor’s Information:
About Andromache, Euripides wrote the homonymous tragedy, of which the e-text(s) is (are) found in
Greece (ancient country) under the category Ancient Greek Writings.
He was the king of the Cilician city of Thebe, father of Andromache, wife of Hector (Il. 1.366, 6.396), and was slain by Achilles after the destruction of the city (Il. 6.415 etc., 23.827).
Eetion, a king of the Placian Thebe in Cilicia, and father of Andromache and Podes.
(Hom. Il. vi. 396, xvii. 575.) He and seven of his sons were slain by Achilles
(Il. vi. 415, &c.), who proposed the mighty iron ball, which Eetion had once thrown,
and which had come into the possession of Achilles, as one of the prizes at the
funeral games of Patroclus. (Il. xxiii. 826, &c.) Among the booty which Achilles
made in the town of Eetion, we find especial mention of the horse Pedasus and
the phorminx with a silver neck, on which Achilles played in his tent. (Il. xv.
153, ix. 186.)
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