Molossus

Family: Troy · Role: child · First appears: Euripides, Andromache — Scene 3

Life events

• Menelaus brought Molossus secretly from the shrine, changing his custody.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 3)
  • With: Menelaus Andromache
  • “Your son I hither bring, whom from this fane With secrecy, you to another house, Without my daughter’s knowledge, had removed.”
• Andromache left the altar and surrendered herself to save Molossus from death.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 3)
  • With: Andromache
  • “Lo! I leave the altar And now am in thy hands, stab, slay me, bind, Strain hard the deadly noose. My son, thy mother, To rescue thee from an untimely grave, Descends the shades beneath;”
• Menelaus revealed that he had lured Andromache away by threatening Molossus’s death.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 3 · 📍 shrine of Thetis)
  • With: Menelaus Andromache
  • “I proposed to slay Your son, that you might leave that hallowed altar Of Thetis, and thus craftily induced you To fall into my hands, and meet your death; Be well assured, such is the present state Of your affairs:”
• Menelaus handed Molossus to his daughter, who would decide whether to kill or spare him.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 3)
  • With: Menelaus
  • “No, I will not, But give him to my daughter, who must act As she thinks fit.”
• Menelaus sentences Andromache and Molossus to death as enemies threatening his household.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 4)
  • With: Menelaus Andromache
  • “Go both together to th’ infernal realm: For ye from hostile turrets hither came.”
• Peleus intervenes and orders Andromache’s chains removed, threatening disobedient guards.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 4)
  • With: Peleus Andromache
  • “My orders are that you those galling chains Unbind and loose her hands, else will I make The disobedient weep.”
• Hermione confesses that she attempted to kill Andromache and her son, but failed.(Euripides, Andromache — Scene 6 · 📍 Phthia)
  • With: Hermione Andromache
  • “I would have killed Her and her spurious son.”

Euripides, Andromache — Scene 3

• parent: Andromache “My son, thy mother, To rescue thee from an untimely grave,”
• parent: Achilles “Soon will the chief Act worthy of the race from which he springs, The hoary Peleus, and his dauntless sire Achilles,”
• elder kin: Peleus (Peleus is presented as part of Molossus’s ancestral line.) “Soon will the chief Act worthy of the race from which he springs, The hoary Peleus, and his dauntless sire Achilles,”
• enemies with Menelaus “Your son I hither bring, whom from this fane With secrecy, you to another house, Without my daughter’s knowledge, had removed.”
• elder kin: Achilles “Soon will the chief Act worthy of the race from which he springs, The hoary Peleus, and his dauntless sire Achilles, he from these abodes will cast Thy daughter forth,”
• patron: Thetis “But leave this shrine of Thetis: for the child Shall if you bleed escape th’ impending doom;”

Euripides, Andromache — Scene 4

• enemies with Hermione “This truth hath Menelaus’ daughter shown, / Furious she comes the victim to destroy; / And, that their blood may nuptial wrongs atone, / The Phrygian captive, and that hapless boy, / With impious rage unjust would cause to bleed”

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Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.