Agamemnon In Greek mythology , Agamemnon ( ; ; Modern Greek : , " " very steadfast " " ) was the son of king Atreus and queen Aerope of Mycenae , the brother of Menelaus , the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia , Electra , Orestes and Chrysothemis . Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos , thought to be different names for the same area . When Helen , the wife of Menelaus , was abducted by Paris of Troy , Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War . On Agamemnon ' s return from Troy he was murdered ( according to the fullest version of the oldest surviving account , " Odyssey " 11 . 409 – 11 ) by Aegisthus , the lover of his wife Clytemnestra . In old versions of the story : " The scene of the murder , when it is specified , is usually the house of Aegisthus , who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon ' s palace , and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon ' s followers too " . In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing , or they do it together , in his own home . Historical prototype . Hittite sources mention , ruler of ( land of Achaea ns ) in the 14th century BC . This is a possible prototype of the Agamemnon of mythology . Early life . Atreus , Agamemnon ' s father , murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to him after discovering Thyestes ' adultery with his wife Aerope . Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter , Pelopia , and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus ' children . Aegisthus successfully murdered Atreus and restored his father to the throne . Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with Thyestes . During this period Agamemnon and his brother , Menelaus , took refuge with Tyndareus , King of Sparta . There they respectively married Tyndareus ' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen . Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children : one son , Orestes , and three daughters , Iphigenia , Electra and Chrysothemis . Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta , while Agamemnon , with his brother ' s assistance , drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father ' s kingdom . He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece . Agamemnon ' s family history had been tarnished by rape , murder , incest , and treachery , consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor , Tantalus , and then of a curse placed upon Pelops , son of Tantalus , by Myrtilus , whom he had murdered . Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus , until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods . Trojan War . Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy . Preparing to depart from Aulis , which was a port in Boeotia , Agamemnon ' s army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis . There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath : in Aeschylus ' play " Agamemnon " , Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy , whereas in Sophocles ' " Electra " , Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis , and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis ' equal in hunting . Misfortunes , including a and a lack of wind , prevented the army from sailing . Finally , the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon ' s daughter Iphigenia . Classical dramatisations differ on how willing either father or daughter were to this fate , some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles , but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia . Her death appeased Artemis , and the Greek army set out for Troy . Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology . Other sources , such as " Iphigenia at Aulis " , claim that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter , but that Artemis accepted a deer in her place , and whisked her away to Taurus in the Crimean Peninsula . Hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate . Agamemnon was the commander - in - chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War . During the fighting , Agamemnon killed Antiphus and 15 other Trojan soldiers . The " Iliad " tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war . Agamemnon took an attractive slave , Briseis , one of the spoils of war , from Achilles . Achilles , the greatest warrior of the age , withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war . Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery , Agamemnon was a representative of kingly authority . As commander - in - chief , he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle . He took the field himself , and performed many heroic deeds until he was wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent . His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness ; an over - exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles , thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks . After the capture of Troy , Cassandra , doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam , fell to Agamemnon ' s lot in the distribution of the prizes of war . Return to Greece . After a stormy voyage , Agamemnon and Cassandra either landed in Argolis , or were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus ' country . Clytemnestra , Agamemnon ' s wife , had taken Aegisthus , son of Thyestes , as a lover . When Agamemnon came home he was slain by either Aegisthus ( in the oldest versions of the story ) or Clytemnestra . According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians , Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone , a blanket of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance . Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra . Her jealousy of Cassandra , and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agamemnon ' s having gone to war over Helen of Troy , are said to have been the motives for her crime . Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon ' s kingdom for a time , Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Agamemnon ' s father Atreus having fed Thyestes his own children ( Thyestes then crying out " So perish all the race of Pleisthenes ! " , thus explaining Aegisthus ' action as justified by his father ' s curse ) . Agamemnon ' s son Orestes later avenged his father ' s murder , with the help or encouragement of his sister Electra , by murdering Aegisthus and Clytemnestra ( his own mother ) , thereby inciting the wrath of the Erinyes ( English : the Furies ) , winged goddesses who tracked down egregiously impious wrongdoers with their hounds ' noses and drove them to insanity . Other stories . Athenaeus tells a tale of how Agamemnon mourned the loss of his friend Argynnus , when he drowned in the Cephisus river . He buried him , honored with a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis . This episode is also found in Clement of Alexandria , in Stephen of Byzantium " ( Kopai " and " Argunnos ) , " and in Propertius , III with minor variations . The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies , ancient and modern , the most famous being the " Oresteia " of Aeschylus . In the legends of the Peloponnesus , Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch , and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of " Zeus Agamemnon " . His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae . Another account makes him the son of Pleisthenes ( the son or father of Atreus ) , who is said to have been Aerope ' s first husband . In works of art there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus , king of the gods , and Agamemnon , king of men . He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem , conventional attributes of kings . Agamemnon ' s mare was named Aetha . She was also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus .