Astyanax

For other uses, see Astyanax (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Astyages.
An engraving showing the child Astyanax thrown from the walls of Troy as his mother Andromache looks on

In Greek mythology, Astyanax (/əˈstaɪ.ənæks/; Ancient Greek: Ἀστυάναξ Astyánax, "lord of the city") was the son of Hector, the crown prince of Troy, and his wife, Princess Andromache of Cilician Thebe.[1] His birth name was Scamandrius (in Greek: Σκαμάνδριος Skamandrios, after the river Scamander[2]), but the people of Troy nicknamed him Astyanax (i.e. high king, or overlord of the city), because he was the son of the city's great defender (Iliad VI, 403) and the heir apparent's firstborn son.

During the Trojan War, Andromache hid the child in Hector's tomb, but the child was discovered. His fate was debated by the Greeks, for if he were allowed to live, it was feared he would avenge his father and rebuild Troy.[2] In the version given by the Little Iliad and repeated by Pausanias (x 25.4), he was killed by Neoptolemus (also called Pyrrhus), who threw the infant from the walls,[1] as predicted by Andromache in the Iliad.[3] Another version is given in Iliou persis, in which Odysseus kills Astyanax. It has also been depicted in some Greek vases that Neoptolemus kills Priam, who has taken refuge near a sacred altar, using Astyanax's dead body to club the old king to death, in front of horrified onlookers.[4] In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the child is thrown from the walls by the Greek victors (13, 413ff). In Euripides's The Trojan Women (719 ff), the herald Talthybius reveals to Andromache that Odysseus has convinced the council to have the child thrown from the walls, and the child is in this way killed. In Seneca's version of The Trojan Women, the prophet Calchas declares that Astyanax must be thrown from the walls if the Greek fleet is to be allowed favorable winds (365–70), but once led to the tower, the child himself leaps off the walls (1100–3). For Hector's mother, Hecuba, Astyanax was the only hope and consolation, and his death's announcement was a terrible climax of the catastrophe.[5] Other sources for the story of the Sack of Troy and Astyanax's death can be found in the Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus), Hyginus (Fabula 109), Tryphiodorus (Sack of Troy 644–6).[6]

  1. ^ a b "Astyanax". Oxford Classical Dictionary. Oxford, 1949, p. 101 (s.v. "Ἀνδρομάχη").
  2. ^ a b A Classical Manual: Being a Mythological, Historical, and Geographical Commentary on Pope's Homer and Dryden's Aeneid of Virgil. J. Murray, 1833, p. 189.
  3. ^ {{Cite book |author=Homer |title=Iliad |chapter=Book XřXIV}|}
  4. ^ Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae II.2.684–85
  5. ^ Roman, Luke; Roman, Monica (2010). Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology. Infobase Publishing. p. 88. ISBN 9781438126395.
  6. ^ Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths (Volume 2). Pelican, 1955, 1960, p. 343.