# Andromache — The Iliad character guide

> Andromache in The Iliad by Homer.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** White-armed Andromache

**First appearance:** 0006-book-v-the-exploits-of-diomed

## Snapshot

Hector's wife, whose love for her husband and terror for their son expose what the war actually costs the people who must endure it.

## Who they are

Andromache stands at the edge of the fighting, a Trojan princess whose family has already been destroyed by Achilles. Her plea to Hector to fight from the walls, and the scene of her holding their infant son Astyanax, make her the epic's sharpest counterweight to glory. She matters because she gives voice to the domestic grief that heroic poetry usually silences, and her foresight shadows every Trojan victory with dread.

## In the story

### [Book VI: Interviews Between Glaucus and Diomed, and Hector and Andromache](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_iliad_se/chapters/book-vi-interviews-between-glaucus-and-diomed-and-hector-and-andromache)

Andromache meets Hector at the Scaean gates and pleads with him to stay; they share a tender farewell, and she returns home weeping.

### [Book XXII: The Death of Hector](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_iliad_se/chapters/book-xxii-the-death-of-hector)

Andromache, unaware of Hector's death, is weaving in her chamber. She hears the lamentations from the walls and rushes out, learning of her husband's fate.

### [Book XXIV: The Body of Hector Recovered](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_iliad_se/chapters/book-xxiv-the-body-of-hector-recovered)

Leads the lament over Hector's body, mourning her widowhood and the fate of their son.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_iliad_se/characters/andromache
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_iliad_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_iliad_se/characters