Charlize Theron's 'Old Guard' Character Andromache Is Based on Wild Stories From Ancient Myth
In Netflix's The Old Guard, Charlize Theron plays Andy, a millennia-old warrior who leads a small band of immortal soldiers as they fight evil throughout the centuries. Before the newly-immortal U.S. Marine Nile joins the group, even its youngest member, Napoleonic Wars vet Booker, is no spring chicken. But Booker is an absolute baby compared to Andy. To her, Julius Caesar was a fresh-faced youngster, and she was still one of the oldest people on the planet at the dawn of the Bronze age. Here's what you need to know about the Old Guard's leader—and just how old she really is.
Who is Andromache of Scythia?
Andy's full name is Andromache of Scythia, and the fact that Greg Rucka, who wrote both the Old Guard movie and the comic series it's based on chose that particular name offers a major hint about Andy's origins.
According to Greek mythology, Andromache was a princess of Thebe and the wife of the Trojan prince Hector. (Hector's brother, Paris, was the guy who stole Helen of Sparta to make her Helen of Troy and kicked off the Trojan War) Homer's Iliad includes Hector's story: After surviving duels with heroes like Protesilaus and Ajax, Hector is killed by Achilles during the war. Achilles ransoms Hector's body back to his father, and the Greeks and Trojans strike a truce to allow Troy to bury and mourn him.
Andromache suffered greatly during the war. Achilles also killed her father and brothers, and after the Greeks pull off their Trojan Horse ruse and sack the city of Troy, the invaders threw her son to his death from the city's walls. With all of her family murdered, Andromache, like other prominent Trojan wives, was given as a slave to a Greek warrior, Neoptolomus.
But that's not the only Andromache from classical mythology. There was also a woman from the famous Amazon tribe of female warriors who bore the same name. Not much has been written about this Andromache, but she faced off against Heracles in a duel. The name "Andromache" itself means "fighter of men," which is a pretty great name for an Amazon—and for a comic book heroine.
So how old is Andy anyway?
Our Andy is probably not Andromache of Troy or Andromache the Amazon, because she's Andromache of Scythia. Both Troy and the mythological Amazons were in what is now modern Turkey, while the Scythians were a real ancient people from Siberia.
While the movie isn't definite about Andy's age, she reveals just how old she truly is in the comics: She's 6,732. Interestingly, that makes her older than the Scythians, Trojans, and the fabled Amazons, all of whom date back around 3,000 years.
Rather than Andy being one figure from ancient myth, it seems that writer Greg Rucka was gesturing to multiple relevant reference points in naming his character Andromache of Scythia. The Scythians were nomadic fighters, much like the Old Guard itself. The Amazons were fierce women warriors, like Andy and Nile, and Andromache of Troy's tragic story highlights the ways war and violence can destroy women's lives even when they aren't on the front lines.
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