#troades

specifically andromache saying goodbye to astyanax as he's about to be hauled off and killed:

ULYSSES [678] [To his men.] Do you hold back, and does a woman’s tearful outcry and futile rage move you? My orders – be quick and do them."

https://archiveofourown.org/works/74743451

These are the two stories I wrote for Yuletide: "Mothers of the Brazen Spear" - the title being a quote from Euripides' play "The Trojan Women", on which it is based - and "Courting the Chamberlain", which is both fanfiction based on the novel "Sieben Jahre" by Tanja Kinkel and 18th century RPF.

"Mothers of the Brazen Spear": my recipient had asked something Andromache-centric which lets her interact with the women she doesn't interact with in the play, Polyxena and Cassandra. (They all interact with Hecuba, of course, which is why Hecuba doesn't show up in my story.) I added Helen, and tried for something that does the heartrendering tone of the play justice but also offers at least a bit of hope for Andromache.

June 2021

Seneca, Troades, ll. 28-40 I call to witness the will of the gods ever my foe, My homeland’s ashes, and you, ruler of the Phrygians, Whom Troy has buried with your whole kingdom for a tomb; I call on your shade, my son – while you stood, so did Troy; And on you, my great herds of offspring, Lesser ghosts:  Whatever woe has befallen- Whatever evils Phoebus’ mad priestess proclaimed With frenzied lips – the god forbade her be believed – I, Hecuba, saw them first While pregnant, nor did I keep my fears silent – I prophesied in vain before Cassandra. It was not the careful man of Ithaca, Nor his night-companion, nor deceitful Sinon Who strewed flames among you: That fire is mine, you blaze with my own torches! Testor deorum numen adversum mihi, patriaeque cineres teque rectorem Phrygum quem Troia toto conditum regno tegit, tuosque manes quo stetit stante Ilium, et vos meorum liberum magni greges, umbrae minores: quicquid adversi accidit, quaecumque Phoebas ore lymphato furens credi deo vetante praedixit mala, prior Hecuba vidi gravida nec tacui metus et vana vates ante Cassandram fui. non cautus ignes Ithacus aut Ithaci comes nocturnus in vos sparsit aut fallax Sinon: meus ignis iste est, facibus ardetis meis.