Tyndareus

Also known as: TYNDARUS / Tyndarus · Family: Spartan · Role: father of Clytemnestra · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1

In Iphigenia in Aulis, Tyndareus allowed Helen to choose among her suitors, and she chose Menelaus. He also saved Agamemnon when he became a suppliant. He is presented as the father of Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux, and as kin to Polydeuces; Clytemnestra is urged not to shame her ancestral home, since “Tyndarus is not worthy of an evil reputation, seeing he is great among the Greeks.”

In Orestes, Tyndareus is opposed to Orestes and Electra, planning to rouse the Argives to sentence them to stoning. He had once nurtured Orestes as a child, dandling him in his arms and treating him no less warmly than Castor and Pollux, yet he hates Clytemnestra for killing her husband. He longs to see his friend Menelaus again, but refuses to take arms in Orestes’ troubles, saying he “was not born a warrior, but brave among women.” His ties to Agamemnon are also invoked against Orestes, while Orestes blames Tyndareus for having begotten a bad daughter.

Relationship record

Life events

• Tyndarus planned to rally Argives to sentence Orestes and his sister to stoning.(Euripides, Orestes — Scene 4)
  • With: Orestes
  • “For going to the multitude of the Argives assembled, I will rouse the state willing and not unwilling, to pass the sentence[16a] of being stoned on thee and on thy sister”
• Tyndarus refuses to take arms against the troubles threatening Orestes.(Euripides, Orestes — Scene 5)
  • With: Orestes
  • “No: for he was not born a warrior, but brave among women.”
• Tyndarus allows Helen to choose a suitor, and she chooses Menelaus.(Euripides, Iphigenia In Aulis — Scene 1)
  • With: Helen Menelaus
  • “He permits his daughter to choose one of the suitors, toward whom the friendly gales of Venus might impel her. But she chose (whom would she had never taken!) Menelaus.”
• Tyndareus saved Agamemnon after Agamemnon became a suppliant.(Euripides, Iphigenia In Aulis — Scene 7)
  • With: Agamemnon
  • “my old father Tyndarus saved you, when you had become a suppliant”

Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1

• child: Clytemnestra “Thou, of Tyndareus the daughter, Queen of Argos, Clytæmnestra”

Euripides, Hecuba — Scene 2

• child: Helen “For the daughter of Tyndarus is most preeminent in beauty, and has been found to be no less injurious than us.”

Euripides, Orestes — Scene 1

• enemies with Orestes “But on Tyndarus, the father of her who was slain, laying an accusation against him, the Argives were about to give a public decision on this question”