Delve into the Baillieu Library special collections and explore what – if anything – we think when we think of Andromache. This collection viewing reflects on Andromache’s afterlives and asks what this ‘relic’ of the Trojan wars might mean for us today. Baudelaire opened his famous poem The Swan (1861) thinking of Andromache, expecting to call up a wealth of associations with this mythic Trojan woman, however, has her representation disappeared?

What to expect:

A 60-minute viewing of the University of Melbourne special collections.

Your Facilitator

Dr Miranda Stanyon is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Melbourne. A scholar of literary cultures in the long eighteenth century, she taught at King's College London and was a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge before returning to Melbourne. Her publications include Resounding the Sublime (Penn) and the collections Music and the Sonorous Sublime in European Culture (ed. with Sarah Hibberd, Cambridge UP), and Amplifying Antiquity: Music as Classical Reception (ed. with Emily Pillinger, Oxford UP). Her current ARC DECRA project focuses on classical receptions in European literature, music, and art during the Romantic era.

Being Human 2025

This project was produced in collaboration with the 2025 Being Human Festival. Founded in the UK as the only national festival of the humanities, Being Human is now a global celebration dedicated to demonstrating the breadth, diversity and vitality of the humanities.

Enquiries

Please send your enquiries to arts-engage@unimelb.edu.au

View the full Being Human program here

Image credit: Pietro Testa (1611–1650), Achilles Dragging the Body of Hector.