Relentless Love
Andromache loved Hector more than
she ever thought was possible. He was the son of King Priam and the leader of
the Trojan forces. His name and power were very important to many, but she
loved him for him. She would have cared for this man just as much if he were
poor and powerless. They dreamt of spending their life together raising a
family and exploring the world together, but as the leader of the Trojans,
Hector couldn’t focus all of his attention on the lovely, but a bit high strung,
Andromache. As time went on, the couple had their ups and downs, but for the
most part they had a strong, happy relationship. The two spent all the time they
could together and eventually had a baby boy. Hector loved his little son more
than anything in the world. They were like two peas in a pod. I don’t think the
boy could’ve been any more like Hector even if he tried. Andromache loved to
watch them spend time together. Her heart throbbed at the sight of Hector with
their precious child.
One day, there was trouble with
the Greeks and all the Trojan soldiers geared up for battle. Each time Hector
had to go fight the Greeks, Andromache would
get worried sick about him. She would even travel to the top of a nearby building and
watch the fights happen, just to make sure she was there if anything were to
happen to her husband. As usual, she watched from her spot and hurried home
when the fighting ended so her husband would think she had never left the house
when he arrived back.
When he returned home, he had a
grim look on his face.
“What’s wrong? I thought today went well?” Andromache asked.
“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” Hector replied, “It looks
like I’m going to have to leave for a while.”
“What?!” Andromache shrieked. “How long do you mean, Hector? You can’t leave me here with our son, take us with you!”
“I’m afraid I can’t. I think you two will be safer here. The
Greeks are relentless and they won’t stop until they are satisfied. I know they
will attack wherever I am, and I don’t want my family to be harmed.”
Andromache
cried herself to sleep that night, and every night for what seemed like
eternity. She knew she had to do something about it; she wanted the life she
had dreamed of with her family. As soon as Hector left, she began plotting what
she was going to do to make sure the Greeks stayed away from the Trojans so her
husband could come back. She knew her husband wouldn’t leave the forces because
they didn’t stand a chance without him.
She took
matters into her own hands.
First, she
figured out what exactly the Greeks wanted. They wanted the city that she lived
in, but obviously she couldn’t agree to give away the place so many people
resided. So, she thought of a backup option. There was a neighboring town, just
a few miles away, with not much civilization at all. She had a plan now, and
would stop at nothing to make sure she was successful. She wanted to build up
the abandoned city with houses and all the other places people needed to live
off of. She wanted all of her friends to help pitch in to building this new
town… and she was going to give it to the Greeks so the Trojans could have
their life and safety back in their own city. It wasn’t going to be easy, but
with everyone in the city there to help, she knew it would be possible.
Sure
enough, after just a few weeks around 20 houses had been completed. After that, they kept building more and more until there were hundreds. They were so proud
of all that they had accomplished they didn’t want to stop. They built tons of
places and after only 6 months, the city was a place worth living. Instead of
telling her husband what she had accomplished, she went straight to the grounds
the Greeks were staying in, and told their leader she built them a city. At
first he was furious, they didn’t want any old city; he just wanted what the
Trojans had. But she convinced him to at least come look at it. To her
surprise, he was quite satisfied and agreed to move his people there!
Andromache
was so excited to tell her husband the news. When she got to the location of the battle, she explained
to him everything she had done. He cried tears of joy and she felt so proud,
she had never seen him so emotional before. All of the troops praised her and
thanked her and they built her the most beautiful palace anyone had ever seen to show their gratitude to her. She proved that anything was possible and her husband thought more highly of
her than ever. Hector finally realized she was much more strong and determined than the weak, sensitive woman he saw her as before.
The palace Andromache earned for her family after solving all the problems between the Greeks and Trojans.
(Photo by: Flickr)
Bibliography: Homer's Iliad- "Hector and Andromache" by A.J. Church.
Author's Note: I read the story "Hector and Andromache" from Homer's Iliad in my Week 2 reading assignment and I really enjoyed it. It gave me the inspiration to make up a new story about the relationship Hector and Andromache had. It was clear in the original story that Andromache truly loved Hector, so I used the same characters and some of the same information from the story to recreate it in a new way. I wanted to put my own spin on it, so I made the wife the hero, which is unique because stories often give men all the power. I thought it would be inspiring to have a women accomplish so much, even though no one really believed in her. My story is meant to portray the idea that anything is possible if you set your mind to it and don't doubt yourself. Andromache is able to prove to Hector just how much she is capable of by using her emotions as fuel in her plan and ends up never having to worry about being underestimated ever again. The message this story sends is more important than the actual story itself.
Author's Note: I read the story "Hector and Andromache" from Homer's Iliad in my Week 2 reading assignment and I really enjoyed it. It gave me the inspiration to make up a new story about the relationship Hector and Andromache had. It was clear in the original story that Andromache truly loved Hector, so I used the same characters and some of the same information from the story to recreate it in a new way. I wanted to put my own spin on it, so I made the wife the hero, which is unique because stories often give men all the power. I thought it would be inspiring to have a women accomplish so much, even though no one really believed in her. My story is meant to portray the idea that anything is possible if you set your mind to it and don't doubt yourself. Andromache is able to prove to Hector just how much she is capable of by using her emotions as fuel in her plan and ends up never having to worry about being underestimated ever again. The message this story sends is more important than the actual story itself.
I really liked that you made Andromache the hero! I also hate when stories give men all of the power and glory and leave women with no story line. I thought the idea of her rallying the whole city to build another one was a really unique and interesting approach to it. I love stories with happy endings so I'm really glad everything worked out in yours.
ReplyDeleteHey again Jamie! I too really loved that you made Andromache the heroine! It's a nice change, although in today's age I am finding it more common which I have no complaints about! I know I always enjoy a good and happy ending so I'm glad you didn't change it too much! I look forward to reading some more of your stories!
ReplyDeleteJamie,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story about Andromache as a hero. It was nice change of pace to the original story and it allowed for a different perspective. I liked the dialogue between Hector and Andromache because it transitioned the transformation of Andromache into the hero nicely. All of the changes created a very unique story! Overall, a great story! I look forward to reading more of your stories in the upcoming weeks.
I've never read the story of Hector and Andromache before and I couldn't tell this isn't how it originally went. I thought you had just reworded it a little here and there until I got to author's notes and realized it was completely flipped. You did a really good job writing a very convincing story, but still staying close to the original in some ways.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I love the title. The introduction is good, but I think it could be condensed. I like the idea that the wife tried to think of a solution to get her husband home sooner. Although I might say that as a character, she seems to misunderstand how important her husband's job is. Sometimes, people have to do what they have to do and make sacrifices. (But that's just me talking *to* the characters, haha). Again, I love the idea of the new village and building all the houses. I like the new spin you put on the story from the original. I also like and appreciate that the hero was the woman. I think you could build up to her being the hero with maybe a little less focus on her just wanting to help her husband though. Maybe she takes on this project to help but she also sees the need for it since she is lonely while her husband is gone. Just an idea. Nice job.
ReplyDeleteI liked this story but I have never read the original so I could not see how close or different the two stories are. What I do not understand is how she got a whole city of people to build a new town? How did she get that much money and resources to pull that off? I did like how you made her the hero of the story instead of a man. Usually in all stories it is always the guy that is strong and powerful enough to pull something like this off. I am glad that she was able to go straight to the Greeks and tell them what she did. They way she did this was daring especially because no one even knew about it. What would have happened if the Greeks did not like the city she built them? How would she have been able to fix this issue then? I wonder why she did not even bother to tell her husband even after it was built? He may have been able to help her then or even go with her to the other king to offer this to them.
ReplyDeleteHi Jamie! I like the change in hero of the story. It reminds me of all the stories and movies about women behind the scenes who often go unrecognized (like the recent movie Hidden Figures).
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'm confused about is the purpose of the child. I understand it increased the love Andomache had for Hector, but it seemed like she would have built the city regardless if they had a child or not. The child seemed shoe horned in, serving little purpose. Maybe you could have the child start training to be like his father, which could then motivate Andromache to act so that she does not have to see her child go to war like Hector.
I was also left wondering why the Greeks wanted what the Trojans had so badly. In addition, if they wanted what the Trojans had so badly, why did they settle for another city? Just a couple of logic notes I had.
Overall, I like your story. It was nice to see a "behind the scenes" look at the war story.
Jamie,
ReplyDeleteI have never read the original story and after reading what you had to write, I am very interested in doing so. I liked that your story made the female the hero. A lot of older stories do not, and I think it made for a nice twist. You maybe should have reconsidered having her do it for herself, and not just her husband? I also wonder if there was anything other than building a city for them that she could have done? That seems like a lot of work, but I do like the message behind it. Overall, great work!
Jamie, I loved your story. I didn’t read any of the Iliad stories, because I felt they would be difficult to use for the basis of my own stories. I’m partial to writing a completely original story based on the principals of the folktale I read over retelling a story, because I’m not confident enough in my writing to believe I would do the original any justice. So, kudos to you for being able to do take a story and retell it in a way that compliments the original work, because I personally think that is more difficult than writing something in your own words.
ReplyDeleteI love that you made the woman the hero and the story ended on a happy note. Anytime I read a story or watch a movie that deals with war, I cringe as the story comes to a close, because I always expect tragedy in some form and in your story, I was somewhat expecting Hector to be killed at war after his wife did what she did to bring him home. So, *spoiler alert* I was pleasantly surprised when that didn’t happen.
I noticed a couple of places that I think could flow better and one grammatical error and I’ve noted them below. I think you did a terrific job on this story overall though!!
>>“She wanted all of her friends to help pitch in to building this new town…” I think it might flow better if you wrote it like “She wanted all of her friend to *pitch in to help build* this new town…” or reworded the end of that sentence in some other way.
>>“Each time Hector had to go fight the Greeks, Andromache would get worried sick about him.” There is nothing “wrong” with this sentence but it might flow better if you wrote “…would *worry* sick about him.” I think that has something to do with active voice but I could be using the wrong terminology. LOL.
>>“At first he was furious, they didn’t want any old city; he just wanted what the Trojans had.” This sentence has some grammatical errors. I think it should be written like this, “At first,(I added a comma) he was furious. (changed this to a period but I don’t think it’s incorrect with a comma. I just think it might flow better with a sentence break here.) They didn’t want any old city; *they*(or change the first “they” to he so there is agreement throughout the sentence.) just wanted what the Trojans had.”
Hi, Jamie! I really loved this story! I like how you gave a lot of details to the relationship between Hector and Andromache. You also did a great job of giving background to how their relationship began and how their love grew. I thought it was awesome that Andromache was able to accomplish so much. I think it would be cool if the son could play a more important role in the story somehow. As it is written now, I feel that the story would not change very much if the son was not in the story at all. It would be interesting if you could give him a more influential role in the story. Just a thought. I also really like the message that the story sent. I also took from it that there are other ways to resolve conflict than just fighting it out. She took it upon herself to find a real solution to the problem. Overall, great story!
ReplyDeleteI loved your story! I am a sucker for love story and this one was definitely worth reading. I liked that she took matters into her own hand and did not just sit there and weep. I was surprised by her bold and courageous attitude to face the Greeks herself. I was almost expecting the husband to be mad that she went to the Greeks, but to my surprise he was so happy and I really liked that. Your author's note is also very helpful in understanding the story. Your spin on it was wonderful. The only thing I would change is maybe the font of the story. Maybe I am just saying this because I can't ever see anything, but a bigger font would make it a lot easier to read. Sometimes reading white on a dark background just makes it seem like a white blob. Other than that, I think you did a marvelous job!
ReplyDeleteI had to read this after seeing the title--Hector is one of my favorite mythological heroes.
ReplyDeleteThis story was really sweet. I like the idea of deepening the relationship between these two characters. Andromache doesn't get very much attention from modern writers. The last paragraph is especially gratifying--you get the sense that Hector loves his wife, but now he really appreciates her to the fullest, and realizes how much she loves him, too.
Everything felt fresh and modernized. Really good job!
A high maintenance woman can't be with a maintenance man... I think that is a country song I heard once! Okay, Hector is no maintenance man that is for sure! He is valiant and a warrior that is trying to protect his family. But, the real hero of this story is Andromache and I love that you have given this woman so many awesome abilities in fighting for her country while her husband was gone as well as her husband becoming emotional when he saw the power of his wife. She's not so high maintenance after all. I think a lot could be added to this story during Andromache time of building the city. How did she get people to do that? Did everyone come together at once or was there more resistance? Did they really just accept the city even though it wasn't what they wanted in the beginning? Great base story! I'd love to read more.
ReplyDeleteJamie, this story was such a good read! My favorite part had to be how the girl was the hero in this story. I could easily picture the story taking place as I read. I also like how she didn’t wait around for things to get better. She took charge, and that was a really good lesson in your story—when things aren’t going the way you want them to, put things into your hands. I feel sometimes this is what we have to do if we want the best for ourselves. I did wonder more about her husband. I wanted a little bit more about him in story. You could possible add in a dialogue between your main character, and her husband if you wanted. I would like to see a bit more about how much they loved each other with some more dialogue. Other than that, I thought this was a really great story to read.
ReplyDelete