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Andromache and gender in the Iliad

The yin yang is a concept that illustrates how light cannot exist without darkness, nor darkness without light. The yin, is characterized by being within, passive, and solid; the yang is characterized by energy, movement, and being outside. The two forces must be constantly interchanging back and forth, striving to reach a balance. Within the yang, there is yin, and vice versa. Only together do the two forces create a balanced whole. But if, for example, the yin were taken away, the concept would be totally unclear - there could be no balance. That is exactly what would happen to parts of the Iliad if Andromache were not present. Andromache plays two roles in the Iliad: she is the yin to Hektor's yang, and she is the "representative" of the Trojan women. Andromache helps to show the importance of family to Hektor, to clarify the cultural role of Trojan women, and to provide a Trojan woman's perspective on war. Together, Hektor and Andromache exemplify the importance of family to the Trojans, illustrate the gender roles of the Trojans and subsequently point out a major difference between the Trojans and the Greeks.

It could be argued that the Iliad is a book about honor, glory, and love between men, but to argue that would be to ignore the Trojans. One first begins to see the presence of family in the lives of the Trojan men as we meet them on their way to appointments with Thanatos. As the young Trojans die, we hear snippets about their mothers or wives and then vegetal imagery reminding us of growth and nurturing. We begin to associate the faceless Trojans with families. But it isn't until we see Andromache that we really comprehend how truly important the family is. Schein reminds us on page 174 that, "Andromache, not the Trojan people, is dearer to Hektor than anyone in the world." As for Andromache, in lines 22.477-478 she says to Hektor's corpse, "You and I were born to a single destiny." When Hektor dies, Andromache goes through her own sympathetic death (according to C. Segal on p. 175-176 of The Mortal Hero), and her life, as it has been, ends. The deep loyalty to family is a painful paradox for Trojan men who wish to stay and be good husbands and fathers. Schein quotes Redfield on p. 174, "[Homer] dramatizes the pain of the warrior's role, of the man who, in behalf of his family, must leave his family, so that his very defense of them becomes a betrayal." Andromache begs Hektor to stay, the way all women must have begged their men, and Hektor must defy her (and his) wishes in order to protect the best interests of the safety of his family and his community.

"Hektor, like all men, feels a primary loyalty to the community at large that he preserves with his heroic prowess." (Schein, pp. 173-174) Along with this loyalty come the contradictory feelings of the need for the family and the love of war-glory. But, "Andromache, like all women in the poem, has a primary loyalty to her immediate family," so no contradiction exists for her. As Hektor reminds Andromache in 6.490-493, a woman's place is in the oikia, and a man's place is being concerned with war and everything else. (Schein, 173) But even though this statement seems blunt enough, the gender roles of Troy had more depth to them. This is most clearly demonstrated in the interaction between Andromache, the epitome of a wife, and Hektor, the exemplar of a man. Andromache is strong in an almost masculine sense. She faces the facts about her own impending doom and the destruction of all she holds dear. She smiles through her tears. And when she is fearful for her husband, she doesn't sit and knit, she bundles up her son and goes off to the wall to look for Hektor. Hektor, on the other hand, leaves the battle and enters the oikia (the woman's domain) in search of his wife. (Schein, p.175) When he finds her, she offers him military advice. Now, this is clearly beyond the normal boundaries of what is normal for females - but she is not presented as negative in any way for speaking or acting thus. Her advice is sound, though Hektor "cannot" follow it, and, though Hektor gently rebukes her for getting involved with affairs of war, it seems that he doesn't really care at all. At the same time, Hektor shows his own soft side when he plays with his son and shows such love for the oikia.

The women are still more passive and rooted in the oikia, but they have strength and passion to them, too. The men are active in war and life, and are often beyond the protected walls, but still dream of their families. They are two forces, each dabbed with a taste of its opposite, and coming out with a perfect balance. But this is not true for all the men and women of the Iliad. In the Achaian camp there is no woman who is a person, there is only female property. The men, on the other hand, have no family to balance them out, and care only for "gold, gore, and glory." It's one of the major differences in the telling of the Iliad, and is one of the reasons that the Trojans are so easy to like.

Achilles and Patroklos are somewhat of an exception to the Greek rule of imbalance and unlove. Achilles is still imbalanced much of the time - but he has other reasons. He knows his fate. He knows that he doesn't have that long to live, so he chooses (ultimately) to go out with as much glory as he can get. That is, after all, what is most important in the man's world of war; it is the closest that mortal men come to immortality. Andromache knows her fate, too, but unlike Achilles, glory is not on her list of priorities. Andromache gains nothing with a noble death - kleos is for men, a woman's place is with her family. Since all her family but Hektor and Astynax is dead, her best hope is to keep Hektor alive longer. Andromache's view is the view of all women of that time. The difference between the views of women and men is clearest when Hektor attempts to reassure Andromache in lines 6.460-465 - he tells her what a man would like to hear: when people see you that will praise and honor you because you were my wife, and I was glorious. He offers her second-hand glory. But Andromache was not worried about glory. She doesn't have to face a fabricated world of kleos, she has to face a world that brings rape, ravaging, and killing of loved ones all around. The views of women and men differ greatly: men see the outcome in terms of glory - they will never face the reality of the after-effects if they lose, because they will be dead - and women see the outcome in terms of realistic consequences. Through her we see the all the helpless wives and mothers who can't do anything but watch their sons fight and die. We see that their lives end with the deaths of their men, but their stories do not. Death is what they can hope for.

Without Andromache's character, the reader could not so clearly see the plight of women in war. Without Andromache, we would not know about the "perfect family" that the Trojan men dreamed of, fought for, and destroyed as they died. Without Andromache to join her husband, we wouldn't know about Hektor's deep conflict over and love for his family, which provides a basis for all other Trojan men and clarifies the difference of the Greeks. Without Andromache's yin to match Hektor's yang we would not know the second half of Hektor or the role of the Trojan woman.

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Written October 19, 2001 at Oberlin College

Last Updated April 19, 2005