By Annachiara, Daria, Gaia and Carmen

1. ANDROMACA
Andromache, Hector's wife, mother of Astyanax,
is a timeless character. Andromache is a key
figure, with noble sentiments and great moral
strength. Andromache is a passionate and
incredibly loving wife of her husband, the hero
Hector, attentive mother and worried about her
future and that of his son, hanging by a thread
that will be violently severed with her husband's
death. But Andromache is also queen,
accustomed to being surrounded by slaves, to
luxury and to live as a free woman in her home.

2. In addition, this magnificent female character is also
example of a woman capable of thinking smart and
wise at the same time, able to survive in a misogynist
society like the Greek. The feelings that do
Andromache a prominent character, and which
strongly express her being a woman, are despair and
loneliness; In fact Andromache is desperate for the
loss of his family for Achilles hand and therefore
alone, to convince Hector not to go into battle tell
him that he was for her father, mother, brother and
husband, that does reflect on the condition of this
young bride saw and sees drop all the emotions that
surround it and who would like to desperately hold
with it.

4. CULTURE
In art:
Her shape compares in various paintings. In particular
“I manichini" by Giorgio De Chirico, Italian painter
of the 1900s that emerges is one in which the artist
through their own mythology, found the inspiration
to shape symbolic images and imaginary scenarios.
The two figures that seem to embrace and become
the sad symbol of lovers doomed to part, victims of a
tragedy and troubled by inner restlessness that is
often difficult to demonstrate.

5. What has been written is effectively synthesized in the
work "Hector and Andromache": the pair is
represented by two dummies, atemporal figures
symbolizing the agony of farewell moment groom
departing for the war; the scenery is immobile, the
simple massive presence of red shades highlight the
drama of the moment; the shadows that stretch
presage the viewer the inescapable end.

7. In the theater:
In Euripides is amazing the ability to immerse themselves in
the characters, especially female ones. There is only art
to characterize them psychologically. The applicants
social issues, are those of the relationship between men
and women and between wives and concubines. What
emerges in this tragedy is the juxtaposition of two
antithetical visions of the female universe. In fact the two
opposed characters are Andromache that lost
everything,from Queen to slave, but maintains the
dignity of women and respect for the traditional values
of the family that includes humans and their weaknesses
and knows how to stand by him and Hermione more
feminist , individualistic, egocentric and opportunist who
seeks to destroy the rival wanting to kill the thing most
dear: his son defended by his mother.

8. Who is right?
Euripides rewards Andromache . The beauty of these
tragedies written 2500 years ago is the relevance and
modernity of the contents, even today we see the
juxtaposition of two female expressions in our time.
The woman devoted to her family, the so-called
housewife and career woman.

10. In literature:
In Virgil, Andromache once more takes the role of a
desperate woman, but has another connotation, in
fact, seems to live in the middle between past and
present, it can not seem to get over the wall that
would leave lead his new life as a queen of Chaonia,
shifting the emphasis from the figure of the
deceased husband Ettore continued to live in her and
the harrowing image of her son Astyanax being killed
by Pyrrhus on Scaean doors. This female character
there also appears as a pious woman, who makes
libations to the dead , witness the ancient customs
that strives unconsciously, and that Virgil uses to sing
the Roman customs.

11. In Baudelaire, French writer of the 1800s, Andromache
preserves the sentiments already expressed in Virgil
and becomes a symbol of those who lost what is
most dear had in the world, such as the family. The
poet, in fact, uses this character to externalize his
feelings on seeing the places he frequented as a boy
completely altered by the new urbanism, and at how
the appearance of a city changes more easily than
the feelings of a man. But using the character of
Andromache, Baudelaire emphasizes the continued
relevance and ability that this figure has to maintain
over time its basic connotations, which over the
centuries are enriched with new and interesting
things, capable of arousing strong emotions in the
reader.

12. Andromache is perhaps one of the first great figures of painful bride. And he
knows just as well the fatal risk facing husband- until he sees dying
horribly for Achilles hand in a last decisive battle under the walls of the
city. After the conquest, then, Andromache become the symbol of the
woman separated from his loved ones, humiliated, taken from her home
to his roots, reduced to the fate of any spoils of war brutally score among
the winners. The poet Baudelaire screaming her name strongest and
highestthan the other poets, in a wonderful poem "Le Cygne". We could
say that, moving to Paris-the capital city of the century- Baudelaire is the
true creator of the urban poetry, poetry of the big city. Now, Baudelaire
writes Le Cygne in the days when the center of Paris is upset by the big
demolition of many old popular neighborhoods to make way for the new
centralized system of large boulevards- spectacular and depending on the
needs of traffic and public order. "The old Paris is gone" ... But in this
background shocked the figure of Andromache in exile electrocution the
image of the poet. "Andromaque, je pense à vous!". "I think of
you,Andromache" so begins The Cygne- while the poet has before his eyes
a poor swan escaped from his cage, and intent to seek a water course
worthy of his magnificent body. Here there is a first identification of
Andromache in exile, along the shore of unknown rivers, and the swan,
destroyed animal by fate.

13. Andromaque,je pense à vous! Cepetitfleuve,
Pauvre ettristemiroiroù jadisresplendit
L'immensemajestédevos douleursde veuve,
Ce Simoïsmenteurquipar vos pleurs grandit,
Andromaca,penso avoi! Quel piccolofiume
povero etristespecchio incui un temporisplendette
L'immensamaestàdeivostri doloridi vedova,
quelSimoentabugiardoche s'ingrossava attraversolevostre lacrime

14. PENELOPE AND ANDROMACHE
Andromache represents in part what was the female figure in
Greece even if, in the relationship between Hector and
Andromache, emerges a conception of sexual relations
different from the normal between the hero and his woman:
a more human relationship, certainly unusual. But the place
of Andromache is still his home, his job is just domestic, and it
is regrettable that she thinks about things risevate men like
war. But she is not less submissive than Penelope is
submissive to his son in the absence of Ulysses; In fact, the
strict respect of the division of roles and obedience together
with chastity and fidelity are the virtues that you expect from
a woman victim of an ideology relentlessly misogynistic.
Weak, unable to lasting feelings, being the marriage her place
of destination and of existence, its interests and her affections
only live according to this: this is the woman.

15. TODAY…
However Andromache represents a first step towards
modern female figure. The more time passes, the
more we see the woman take possession of power
who once would never have dreamed of having. The
slave woman and submissive man no longer exists.
She took and takes more and more conscious of
herself and her capabilities; rejects a life that until a
few years ago she accepted naturally. The figure of
the housewife, who all devoted to her family, who
lived for the family is disappearing, her place is taken
by a new woman who has many interests in addition
to domestic ones.

16. Precisely in Andromache suggests this: she is in fact
also involved in the political life of his city so much
that she took part in the defense of Troy against the
Greeks, coming to kill one. In this way Andromache
begins to dissolve the figure of Homeric woman,
seen only as an instrument of reproduction and the
family group preservation, on the contrary it outlines
the nearest woman conception to our way of
thinking, is no longer the devoted women exclusively
domestic work, but becomes an emancipated
woman taking a self-employed career.

18. Being a woman is so fascinating. It is an
adventure that takes such courage, a
challenge that is not boring ever …
Oriana Fallaci
Anna Chiara, Eleonora, Gaia, Carmen