Agamemnon

Also known as: AG / AG. / AGAMEMNON / Agam / Atrides / the son of Atreus · Family: House of Atreus · Role: king of Mykenæ · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1

Agamemnon, son of Atreus and king of Mykenæ, was the brother of Menelaus. At Aulis, the Greeks chose him as their general, and Calchas proclaimed that Iphigenia, his daughter by Clytemnestra, must be sacrificed to Artemis so the fleet could sail and Troy could fall. Agamemnon first ordered the army dismissed, then summoned Iphigenia under the pretence that she would marry Achilles, and finally hardened his heart and gave command for her sacrifice. Clytemnestra also accused him of killing Tantalus, her former husband, and taking her by force, while Tyndareus had once saved him when he was a suppliant.

Agamemnon led the Hellenes against Paris and destroyed Troy and Priam’s city, with Odysseus remaining his true companion in the war. On his return to Argos after the tenth year, he brought Cassandra as a captured concubine and entered his palace at Clytemnestra’s demand. Cassandra warned that the woman sharing his bed was preparing his death, and Clytemnestra, plotting with Aegisthus, struck him down inside the palace after his return.

After Agamemnon’s death, Orestes, his heir, was sent to Strophius’s care, while Electra mourned and prayed for vengeance. His killing remained tied to the older feud between Atreus and Thyestes, making Aegisthus both his cousin and enemy; Agamemnon was also opposed to Aias, declaring that “in the grave or out of it, Aias still / Shall have my hatred.” In the aftermath of Troy, he ordered Polyxena released before her sacrifice, judged Polymestor for killing his guest, and ordered him expelled to a desert island.