Agamemnon

Vinicius Salles as Agamemnon

## Appearence

### Clothing

Trousers, blue shirt & braces with long coatLater: crystal-encrusted skull mask & red robe

### Seen In

The Woods, The Crossed Girders, The Palladium, The Square, The Elysium Hotel, The Nightclub Office, The Stone Table, The Shower Room, Mycenae, Troy

### Seen With

Artemis, Neoptolemus, Patroclus, The Watchman, The Oracle, Hades, Iphigenia, Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra, Macaria, Luba, Laocoön, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus

## Relationship Information

### Family

Husband to Clytemnestra, Cousin to Aegisthus, Father to Iphigenia, Lover to Cassandra

## Cast

### Played By

Ali Goldsmith, Folu Odimayo, Harry Price, Jon Savage, Mitch Harvey, Omar Gordon, Robert McNeill, Vinicius Salles

Agamemnon is the King of the Greeks, Leader of the Mycenean Army, and husband to Queen Clytemnestra.

His story arc revolves around his desperation and desire to conquer Troy, and the consequences of his grim actions in pursuit of doing so.

## Loop

*Based on Loop 2*

He begins in The Woods, where he prays desperately at the Artemis Shrine, for divine intervention to ease the storms, allowing his army safe passage to Troy, and thus winning them the war. He is promptly confronted by Artemis, who appears friendly at first but quickly proves to be hostile.

Hearing a commotion at The Crossed Girders, he runs across the Mycenae battlefields to break up the fight between Neoptolemus and Patroclus. After scolding the pair, he receives an urgent phone call, but as he picks up the receiver he simply hears the name "Iphigenia", hauntingly calling out to him, whilst Artemis stands atop one of the Crossed Girders cackling, maniacally. Agamemnon swiftly tells Neoptolemus and Patroclus of his plan; Neoptolemus is to pose as a potential suitor for Iphigenia in a mock wedding, laid as a trap to lure her close, so she may be sacrificed, to appease Artemis. He proceeds to send The Watchman away to keep an eye on events across Mycenae, and be prepared for the impending Troy invasion. \*

He prepares a wedding gift, climbing the ladder to meet with The Oracle, exchanging a wedding veil for one of her rings. As he descends the ladder, the wedding celebration rages on upstairs, whilst he dances frantically, down by The Crossed Girders, deliberating over what he is about to do. \*\*

Following the wedding, Iphigenia descends the large staircase in her bridal outfit, and is helped onto one of the Crossed Girders by her father, as Neoptolemus stands atop it to greet her. However, just as she approaches her 'suitor', she turns to find her father readying to sacrifice her. He then slits her throat, leaving her body laying across the girder.

In a frenzy of both bloodlust, but also grief, Agamemnon rallies Neoptolemus, Patroclus and Artemis into summoning the winds to transport them to Troy. With Artemis thoroughly satisfied, Agamemnon and his men successfully storm Troy, via The Palladium doors.

Upon entering The Square, he is met by Hecuba, Polyxena, Cassandra and Macaria. He and his soldiers stand off against the Trojan women, until he is attacked by Polyxena, who offers herself to him as a sacrifice. Agamemnon orders Neoptolemus to carry out the killing, but when he cannot bear to do it, she does it herself. Pleased with the result, Agamemnon takes to the Troy backstreets.

Scanning the wall map of Troy, his torchlight falls on a tear-off flyer for 'Element Readings' from Alighieri's; he takes one and heads towards The Elysium Hotel. \*\*\* Barging his way through the hotel rooms, he startles a terrified Luba, before heading upstairs to The Nightclub Office, where he is met by Cassandra. She tempts him into the office and dances seductively around him (seemingly offering herself to him as a concubine), as Laocoön dances on the other side of The Nightclub window, smearing blood behind Agamemnon's head (prophesising his impending doom).

Agamemnon and Cassandra make their way through the graffiti corridors together, back to Mycenae, where they are greeted warmly by Clytemnestra. He is then adorned with his crystal en-crusted skull mask, as The Oracle secures a very long, red cape over his shoulders - he reacts aggressively, and attempts to reject the cape, before being reassured by Clytemnestra. He proceeds to ascend the large staircase up to The Stone Table, before walking across it and laying down to sleep, enwrapped in both the cape and the arms of his wife. Soon he is awoken by Clytemnestra, who convinces him to drink a cup of kykeon (prepared, unbeknownst to him, by Aegisthus); he then engages in a three-way sexual encounter with Clytemnestra and Aegisthus (disguised by a feminine mannequin mask), as he is undressed and lured towards The Shower Room.

He encourages Clytemnestra to join him in the shower, to which she obliges, and the two continue to make love, until he notices a now unmasked Aegisthus watching them both. Before he can defend himself, Clytemnestra (in a vengeful fit of rage) smashes his head against the shower wall and strangles him to death. Finally, Iphigenia (resurrected as Hecate) approaches his body, and revives him - the pair share an embrace, with her seemingly forgiving him for her murder. He then redresses and makes his way back down the staircase, to The Woods, ready for the next loop.

*\* In Loop 1, due to the shorter first loop, in Loop 1, there is no fight to break up, and so he begins by being led to the Crossed Girders by Artemis,to answer the ringing phone. \*\* In Loop 3, Hades joins him by The Crossed Girders, toying with him and encouraging him to go through with the sacrifice. \*\*\* During Loop 1, this is where he is during Hades' record stop; he will temporarily freeze before carrying on as if nothing happened.*

## 1:1s

Not including a walk-out, Agamemnon has no true '1:1' scenes.

Depending on the performer, during the storming of Troy, he may physically push WMs onwards, verbally encouraging them to "move faster", and "keep going".

Additionally, he has a personalised walk-out experience. Upon the conclusion of the Mycenae Finale, he will arise from the floor and reach out a hand to a WM, walking them through to Troy, (typically, but not always, through to The House of Asterion), removes their mask, and whispers to them a story of a child who was swept away and became apart of the starry sky. He then thanks them for coming, and redirects them towards PEEP.

## Quotes

* "Where's Helen?" - to Hecuba, upon storming Troy (Robert McNeill)

## Mythology

* Agamemnon was a King of Mycenae; son to King Atreus and Queen Aerope, and brother to Menelaus
* He had four children with his wife Clytemnestra; Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes and Chrysothemis.
* When his brother Menelaus's wife, Helen, was taken to Troy by Paris, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War. When preparing to depart for Troy, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis. Misfortunes including a plague and a lack of wind, preventing 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 dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter was to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, the doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. Upon returning from Troy, he was killed by Aegisthus, his wife's secret lover. In some later versions of the story Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or she and Aegisthus act together, killing Agamemnon in his own home.
* Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then rule Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, until Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenges 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 Furies, winged goddesses who track down wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drive them to insanity. Finally, with the help of Athena and Apollo he is absolved of his crimes, dispersing the miasma, and the curse on house Atreus comes to an end.
* The *Iliad* tells the story about the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles (represented by Neoptolemus in The Burnt City), in the final year of the Trojan War. Agamemnon stole an attractive slave called Briseis, one of the spoils of war, from Achilles. This created a rift between Achilles and Agamemnon, causing Achilles to withdraw from battle and refuse to fight. After realising Achilles's importance in winning the war against the Trojan Army,  Agamemnon sent ambassadors begging for Achilles to return, offering him riches and the hand of his daughter in marriage. Achilles refused, only being spurred back into action when Patroclus was killed in battle by Hector, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. Later on Agamemnon reconciled with Achilles, giving him the offered rewards for returning to the war, before Achilles went out to turn back the Trojans and duel Hector. After Hector's death, Agamemnon assisted Achilles in performing Patroclus' funeral.