French playwright Jean Racine wrote Andromaque in 1667. Its first performance was at the Hôtel de Bourgogne that same year on 17 November for the Queen of France.

Jean Racine in the Apotheosis of Homer

Euripides' and Virgil's versions are the sources for Racine's play. After the Trojan War, in which Achilles killed Hector, the latter's widow, Andromache is taken prisoner and serves as a slave to Achilles' son Pyrrhus. Pyrrhus is supposed to marry Hermione, daughter of the Spartan king Menelaus.

The structure of Racine's play is an unrequited love chain: Orestes loves Hermione, who wants to please Pyrrhus, who loves Andromache, who thinks only of her dearly beloved husband Hector and her son, Astyanax. The arrival of Orestes at the court of Pyrrhus unleashes a violent undoing of the chain. The importance of the theme of gallantry is a holdover from Racine's previous work, Alexandre le Grand. His subsequent works gradually purify the tragic element until it reaches its zenith with Phèdre.

Unlike the majority of Racine's plays, Andromache has never gone out of vogue, and the tragedy is among the most venerable works of the Comédie Française's repertory. It is also the most often read and studied classicist play in French schools. Jacques Rivette's four-hour film L'Amour fou centers around rehearsals of a production of Andromaque.

Summary of the play

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Act 1: Orestes, Greek ambassador, arrives at the court of Pyrrhus to convince him on behalf of the Greeks to put Astyanax to death, for fear that Hector's son may one day avenge Troy. Pyrrhus refuses at first, then, upon being rejected by Andromache, he threatens to turn Astyanax over to the Greeks.

Act 2: Orestes speaks to Hermione, who agrees to leave with him if Pyrrhus allows it. However, Pyrrhus, heretofore uninterested in Hermione, announces to Orestes that he has decided to marry here, and that he will give him Astyanax.

Act 3: Orestes is furious over having lost Hermione for good. Andromache begs Hermione and Pyrrhus to spare her son. Pyrrhus agrees to reverse his decision if Andromache will marry him. She hesitates, unsure of what to do.

Act 4: Andromache resolves to marry Pyrrhus in order to save her son, but intends suicide as soon as the ceremony is over, so that she remains faithful to her late husband Hector. Hermione asks Orestes to avenge her scorn from Pyrrhus by killing him.

Act 5: Hermione regrets asking for Pyrrhus' death, because she loves him. Before she can cancel her request, Orestes appears and announces that he has completed the mission she has charged him with. She thanks him with insults. Orestes becomes crazed because of a curse placed upon him by the Furies, and Hermione kills herself.

See also : Greek Mythology. Paintings, Drawings