Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The young son of Hector and Andromache, killed when the Greeks conquered Troy.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The body of little Scamandrius, also lovingly known as Astyanax, not quite one year old, lies on the floor — hacked to pieces.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • And his son, whom all the citizens of Ilium call Astyanax — ‘Lord of the City’ — will be a slave to the Achaean pigs, sold away from his slave-whore mother.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • When he had played till he was tired and went to sleep, he would lie in a bed, in the arms of his nurse, on a soft couch, knowing neither want nor care, whereas now that he has lost his father his lot will be full of hardship — he, whom the Trojans name Astyanax, because you,

    The Iliad of Homer 1898

  • When he had played till he was tired and went to sleep, he would lie in a bed, in the arms of his nurse, on a soft couch, knowing neither want nor care, whereas now that he has lost his father his lot will be full of hardship -- he, whom the Trojans name Astyanax, because you, O Hector, were the only defence of their gates and battlements.

    The Iliad 750? BC-650? BC Homer 1868

  • Homer evidently agreed with the men: and of the name given by them he offers an explanation; -- the boy was called Astyanax ( 'king of the city'), because his father saved the city.

    Cratylus 427? BC-347? BC Plato 1855

  • “And Hector’s little boy, Scamandrius, whom the people call Astyanax?”

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • Nor did it help to know that the Achaean who will capture her — Pyrrhos, destined to become ancestor to the kings of the Eperiote tribe of the Molossians and to be given a hero’s tomb at Delphi — would rip Hector’s child, Scamandrius (called Astyanax, “Lord of the City,” by the residents of Ilium), from his nurse’s breast and will fling the child from the high walls to his bloody death.

    Ilium Simmons, Dan 1981

  • Brunetti, who has been reading the Greek dramatists, is deeply affected by the discovery: He could not bring himself, not that night, to read of the death of Astyanax.

    Book review Maxine 2009

  • Biomimicry strikes again – this time with Snookie, an underwater robot that has an artificial sensory organ inspired by the “lateral-line system” seen in blind fish like the Astyanax.

    Ariel Schwartz | Inhabitat 2010

  • Brunetti, who has been reading the Greek dramatists, is deeply affected by the discovery: He could not bring himself, not that night, to read of the death of Astyanax.

    14: The Girl of His Dreams Maxine 2008

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