ue of the combat and the destiny of the
children, Andromache will be the great prototype. Andromache feels in
her heart that sacred Ilium is doomed, and, in those cruel times when
might was right, she knew but too well what was to be the fate of
herself and the lad Astyanax. Euripides tells us how the forebodings of
Andromache came true, and dwells on those sad days for the daughters of
Troy when the mailed hand of the Achaeans carried them off captive after
the fall of the city and determined their destiny by lot.

Andromache was apportioned to Neoptolemus, Achilles's valiant son, and
in Euripides's _Daughters of Troy_ she reappears, with her child in her
arms, haled forth to her new bondage. Sadly she bewails her lost Hector,
who could have warded off from her the curse of thraldom. The Greek
herald, Talthybius, demands from her the lad Astyanax, whom the Greeks
have decided to hurl from the battlements of Troy. The child is
ruthlessly torn from his mother's embrace, and she is led off to the
hollow ships. Neoptolemus takes her over sea to his home in Thessaly,
and loves her and treats her with a kindness and consideration that are
sweetly perfect. To him she bears a son in her captivity; but not of her
own will does she share his couch, for her heart is true to the memory
of Hector. After many years, Neoptolemus weds Hermione, daughter of
Menelaus and Helen, a princess of Sparta. To them no child is born, and
Hermione's heart is filled with anger and jealousy toward the thrall,
whom her husband still treats tenderly. With her father, Menelaus,
Hermione, during Neoptolemus's absence, plots the destruction of
Andromache and her boy, but the aged Peleus protects the defenceless
ones. Neoptolemus is slain at Delphi, and Thetis, who appears at the
close of the _Andromache_, thus solves the problem of fate:

"And that war-captive dame, Andromache,
In the Molossian land must find a home
In lawful wedlock joined to Helenus,
With that child who alone is left alive
Of AEacus' line. And kings Molossian
From him one after other long shall reign
In bliss."

Readers of Virgil will recall how AEneas found Andromache in the
Molossian land, and how her heart yearned for the lad Ascanius, who
reminded her of the lost Astyanax. Euripides has been true, in the main,
to the Homeric conception of Andromache, and endows her in her captivity
with the same womanliness and domestic traits that won