Editing Astyanax (section)

{{Short description|Mythical son of Hector}}
{{other uses}}
{{distinguish|Astyages}}
[[File:Astianax.jpg|thumb|200px|right|An engraving showing the child Astyanax thrown from the walls of Troy as his mother Andromache looks on]]
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Astyanax''' ({{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|s|t|aɪ|.|ə|n|æ|k|s}}; {{langx|grc|Ἀστυάναξ}} ''Astyánax'', "lord of the city") was the son of [[Hector]], the crown prince of Troy, and of his wife, Princess [[Andromache]] of [[Cilician Thebe]].<ref name="OCD">"Astyanax". ''Oxford Classical Dictionary''. Oxford, 1949, p. 101 (''s.v.'' "Ἀνδρομάχη").</ref> His birth name was '''Scamandrius''' (in Greek: Σκαμάνδριος Skamandrios, after the river [[Scamander]]<ref name="ACM">''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.</ref>), 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.<ref name="ACM" />  In the version given by the ''[[Little Iliad]]'' and repeated by [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] (x 25.4), he was killed by [[Neoptolemus]] (also called Pyrrhus), who threw the infant from the walls,<ref name = "OCD" /> as predicted by Andromache in the Iliad.<ref>{{Cite book |author=Homer |title=Iliad |chapter=Book XřXIV}}</ref>  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.<ref>''Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae'' II.2.684–85</ref>  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 the Younger|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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOgWfjNIxoMC&q=Encyclopedia+of+Greek+and+roman+mythology+cite&pg=PP1|title=Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology|last1=Roman|first1=Luke|last2=Roman|first2=Monica|date=2010|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=9781438126395|pages=88|language=en}}</ref> Other sources for the story of the Sack of Troy and Astyanax's death can be found in the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)]]'', [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]] (''Fabula'' 109), [[Tryphiodorus]] (''Sack of Troy'' 644–6).<ref>Graves, Robert. ''The Greek Myths'' (Volume 2). Pelican, 1955, 1960, p. 343.</ref>