War & Mental Health

Theater of War: Hector, Andromache, and the Death of Astyanax

Dramatic Reading of Iliad, Book VI, by Homer The Trojan Women, by Euripides

Translated, directed, and facilitated Bryan Doerries

Theater of War: Hector, Andromache, and the Death of Astyanax will presents live, dramatic readings of selections from Homer’s Iliad, Book VI and scenes from The Trojan Women by Euripides—featuring acclaimed actors and a Chorus of students, from a variety of backgrounds, whose lives have been impacted by war—to help frame powerful, healing dialogue about the human cost of war, centered on the suffering of children and civilians. The project uses ancient texts that explore and depict the dehumanization of war to create a vocabulary for openly discussing challenging and divisive subjects, with the aim of generating compassion, empathy, moral repair, understanding, and positive action.

About the plays

Iliad, Book VI by Homer

The Trojan warrior Hector is confronted by his wife Andromache, who begs him not to return to the battlefield where she knows he will die. Hector explains the reasons he must leave her and their young son Astyanax to go back to battle and to his inevitable death. As he parts ways with his family, Hector reaches out to embrace his son, but Astyanax recoils in fear at the sight of his father’s helmet, which Hector removes before kissing and holding his son one last time.
The Trojan Women by Euripides

The selected scenes from Euripides’ Trojan Women take place at the end of the Trojan War, after Hector has been slain and Troy has been destroyed. Andromache and her son Astyanax are led through the ruins of the city on a wagon with Hector’s helmet and amour piled next to them. Andromache is being taken away by Achilles’ son Neoptolemus to live as his concubine and slave. The women of Troy, who have all lost their husbands in battle, mourn Andromache’s fate, as well as their own. Suddenly, a herald arrives and announces that the Greek army has decided to execute Astyanax by throwing him off the Trojan towers to prevent him from one day avenging his father’s death. Andromache says goodbye to her son before he is taken away and executed by Odysseus and she is taken from Troy on Neoptolemus’ ship. In the final scene, Astyanax’ body is brought to his grandmother Hecuba, the Queen of Troy, and the play ends with a funeral procession in which Astyanax is buried on his father’s shield while the remains of Troy are burned to ashes.