Androktasiai
The Androktasiai (“Man-slaughters”) were minor personifications of killing in battle in Greek mythology. In Hesiod’s Theogony they are children of Eris (Strife), and so brothers and sisters of Ponos (Toil), Limos (Famine), Algea (Pains), the Machai (Battles), the Phonoi (Murders) and others.
Name and Meaning
The name Androktasiai is the plural of the Greek androktasia, “man-slaying”, formed from aner (“man”, genitive andros) and a form of the verb kteinein, “to kill”. In Homer the common noun refers to the slaughter of men in war. Hector says he knows well “battles and man-slayings”; Zeus draws Hector away from “man-slaying, blood and din”; Hera and Athena stop the man-destroying Ares from his “man-slayings”; and Achilles tells Priam that around his city there are always “battles and man-slayings” (Homer, Iliad 7.237; 11.163–164; 5.908–909; 24.548).
Family of Androktasiai
- Parents
- Eris
Parents and Siblings
Hesiod says that Night bore Eris, the strong-hearted, and that hateful Eris herself bore “painful Ponos, Lethe, Limos and tearful Algea, Hysminai and Machai, Phonoi and Androktasiai, Neikea, Pseudea Logoi and Amphillogiai, Dysnomia and Ate, close companions of one another, and Horkos”, the Oath, who brings most trouble to men who knowingly swear a false oath (Hesiod, Theogony 224–232). The list is as follows, with the usual English renderings:
- Ponos (Toil), Lethe (Forgetfulness), Limos (Famine), Algea (Pains)
- Hysminai (Frays or Fights), Machai (Battles), Phonoi (Murders), Androktasiai (Man-slaughters)
- Neikea (Quarrels), Pseudea Logoi (Lies), Amphillogiai (Disputes)
- Dysnomia (Lawlessness), Ate (Ruin) and Horkos (Oath)
Hesiod gives no father for these children; they are the offspring of Eris alone. He also does not explain how the Androktasiai differ from the Phonoi, who are named next to them. Both are bound up with killing, and the poem presents them as a group rather than separate figures with stories.
Role
Hesiod tells no story about the Androktasiai. They are part of his catalogue of the evils that spring from strife. In the Shield of Heracles the poet places Androktasia on the shield of the hero among the figures of war: Pursuit and Retreat, Tumult, Fear and Man-slaughter, and Strife and Uproar, together with deadly Ker, the spirit of death, who holds one man alive but newly wounded and another unwounded, and drags a dead man by the feet through the battle, her cloak red with the blood of men (Hesiod, Shield of Heracles 154–160).
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