Agamemnon, King of Mycenae, the leader of Greeks in the Trojan war - Greek Gods, Mythology of Ancient Greece Agamemnon Agamemnon Agamemnon was a Greek leader in the great Trojan war. The war made him recognisable throughout historical and mythological recordings, even to this day. Despite his heroics and great leadership, Agamemnon was a casualty of unfortunate events in his family which were based on treachery, rape, murder and incest. He managed to run away and take refuge in Sparta with his brother Menelaus who then became a king of Sparta and helped Agamemnon to reclaim his throne in Mycenae . When Helen of Sparta was abducted, Menelaus called upon his brother who became a leader of the Greeks in Trojan war that lasted for ten years. Agamemnon himself managed to survive but was murdered upon his arrival back to his homeland, by either his wife Clytemnestra whom he married while at Sparta or her lover who happened to be Aegisthus, the son of his uncle Thyestes who fathered him with his own daughter Pelopia.

Appearance in the works of art In the works of art, Agamemnon`s depiction resemble and is very similar to the representation of Zeus , the king of the gods. Agamemnon is generally depicted wearing a diadem and holding a scepter which are among conventional attributes of kings. Family quarrel In his early life, there were plenty of things going wrong. His father Atreus murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes, after finding out his adultery with his wife Aerope. Atreus even went so far that the murdered children were on the menu of Thyestes for a while. However, Atreus hadn`t murdered all of his children, mostly because he didn`t know about Aegisthus who was a son of Thyestes and Thyestes` daughter Pelopia. It was not long, before Aegisthus took revenge on Atreus and murdered him. He then claimed the throne of Mycenae and ruled hand to hand with Thyestes. Together, they exiled Agamemnon and Menelaus from Mycenae. The brothers took refuge at the place of Tyndareus, a king of Sparta, where they married the king`s daughters Helen and Clytemnestra.

Agamemnon and Clytemnestra together had four children, one son and three daughters. Eventually, Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta and with his superior army helped his brother to drove away Thyestes and reclaim his throne in Mycenae. For a while they enjoyed a decent life, until Paris kidnapped Helen, the wife of his brother Menelaus. Trojan war This act, which was caused by the gods themselves, led to a war between Greeks and Trojans. And it happened to be king Agamemnon who led his people into battle. He had to overcome his first obstacle while still in Greece. He offended Artemis by killing one of her sacred animals and the angry goddess obstructed their departure from Boeotia. Greek soldiers were becoming more and more reluctant and, as a result of this, he had to sacrifice one of his daughters, called Iphigenia, to the angry goddess. Finally, Agamemnon made peace with Artemis, gathered his army, including two of the finest heroes Odysseus and Achilles , and set sail for Troy. Agamemnon then led his men into a battlefield, filled them with good positive morale and himself fought bravely.

He killed many Trojans until he was finally wounded and forced to withdraw to his camp. It looked like they were going to win with ease, until his act to take away Briseis from Achilles, after losing Chryseis to Apollo , corrupted their progress. Briseis was a local woman of great beauty whom Achilles took for himself, after clearing the village in the Trojan lands. It resulted for Achilles withdrawing himself from the battlefield as a revengeful act. The Greeks consequently started losing battles and morale was getting lower and lower. However, later on, as you probably already know, Achilles returned to battle when his closest friend was killed and Agamemnon finally gave up on Briseis and returned her to him. Eventually, with Achilles killing Hector and Odysseus` great disguise in the shape of a Trojan horse, the Greeks managed to capture the city of Troy and win the war. Agamemnon took Cassandra, a daughter of Priam, a former king of Troy, as his reward and set sail back to Greece. Murder of Agamemnon Meanwhile, his wife Clytemnestra was having an affair with no-one else but his foe Aegisthus.

When Agamemnon came home, he was killed by either Aegisthus or Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, where she had first thrown a net or a blanket of cloth over him to prevent resistance and then killed him with an axe. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. It is said that her motives for the crime were jealousy of his new lover Cassandra and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia, as well as his departure to war over the Helen of Troy. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then ruled the kingdom for some time, until Agamemnon's son Orestes, with the help of his sister Electra, avenged his father's death by murdering Aegisthus and his own mother Clytemnestra. It is said that repeating treachery through generations resulted in a wrath of Erinyes who tracked down these sinners with their hounds and drove them to insanity.

greek-gods.org (c) Copyright 2013 - 2016, all rights reserved Agamemnon | Define Agamemnon at Dictionary.com Agamemnon [ag-uh-mem-non, -nuh n] /ˌæg əˈmɛm nɒn, -nən/ Spell noun 1. Classical Mythology. a king of Mycenae, a son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus. He led the Greeks in the Trojan War and was murdered by Clytemnestra, his wife, upon his return from Troy. 2. (italics) a tragedy (458 b.c.) by Aeschylus. Expand < Greek Agamémnon- (stem of Agamémnōn), < *Agaménmon-, equivalent to aga- great + men- (truncation of Menelaus , meaning king) + -mon- suffix used in shortened names Dictionary.com Unabridged Examples from the Web for Agamemnon Expand Contemporary Examples We amplified the scene with Agamemnon to let people understand that Achilles is not acting out of pettiness.

The Peterkin Papers Lucretia P Hale Thou didst say that he went out with Agamemnon to fight the Trojans. Loss and Gain John Henry Newman The Trojans proceed to the battle, while Agamemnon exhorts the chieftains of the Greeks. Homer's Odyssey Denton J. Snider Agamemnon, on the contrary—also not presented to us till after the death of Ajax—is but a boisterous tyrant 372. British Dictionary definitions for Agamemnon Expand noun 1. (Greek myth) a king of Mycenae who led the Greeks at the siege of Troy. On his return home he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus See also Menelaus Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd.

1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012 Word Origin and History for Agamemnon Expand king of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War, his name perhaps represents Greek Aga-medmon, literally "ruling mightily," from agan "very much" + medon "ruler" (see meditation ). Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper SparkNotes: Agamemnon: Overall Summary Overall Summary Context Characters Agamemnon begins with a Watchman on duty on the roof of the palace at Argos, waiting for a signal announcing the fall of Troy to the Greek armies. A beacon flashes, and he joyfully runs to tell the news to Queen Clytemnestra.

When he is gone, the Chorus, made up of the old men of Argos, enters and tells the story of how the Trojan Prince Paris stole Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, leading to ten years of war between Greece and Troy. Then the Chorus recalls how Clytemnestra's husband Agamemnon (Menelaus' brother) sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to the god Artemis to obtain a favorable wind for the Greek fleet. The Queen appears, and the Chorus asks her why she has ordered sacrifices of thanksgiving. She tells them that a system of beacons has brought word that Troy fell the previous night. The Chorus give thanks to the gods, but wonder if her news is true; a Herald appears and confirms the tidings, describing the army's sufferings at Troy and giving thanks for a safe homecoming. Clytemnestra sends him back to Agamemnon, to tell her husband to come swiftly, but before he departs, the Chorus asks him for news of Menelaus. The Herald replies that a terrible storm seized the Greek fleet on the way home, leaving Menelaus and many others missing.

The Chorus sings of the terrible destructive power of Helen's beauty. Agamemnon enters, riding in his chariot with Cassandra, a Trojan Princess whom he has taken as his slave and concubine. Clytemnestra welcomes him, professing her love, and orders a carpet of purple robes spread in front of him as he enters the palace. Agamemnon acts coldly toward her, and says that to walk on the carpet would be an act of hubris, or dangerous pride; she badgers him into walking on the robes, however, and he enters the palace. The Chorus expresses a sense of foreboding, and Clytemnestra comes outside to order Cassandra inside. The Trojan Princess is silent, and the Queen leaves her in frustration. Then Cassandra begins to speak, uttering incoherent prophecies about a curse on the house of Agamemnon. She tells the Chorus that they will see their king dead, says that she will die as well, and then predicts that an avenger will come. After these bold predictions, she seems resigned to her fate, and enters the house. The Chorus' fears grow, and they hear Agamemnon cry out in pain from inside.

As they debate what to do, the doors open, and Clytemnestra appears, standing over the corpses of her husband and Cassandra. She declares that she has killed him to avenge Iphigenia, and then is joined by her lover Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin, whose brothers were cooked and served to Aegisthus' father by Agamemnon's father. They take over the government, and the Chorus declares that Clytemnestra's son Orestes will return from exile to avenge his father. More Help Agamemnon, Greece, Greek mythology Greek Mythology Zethos Agamemnon King of Mycenae and leader of the Greek armies in the Trojan War. He was the son of Atreus, on whose house a curse had been laid. Clytemnestra was his wife, and together they had two sons, Orestes and Chrysothemis, and two daughters, Iphigenia and Electra. Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia to Artemis, so that the Greeks would succeed in the war against Troy.

He left Clytemnestra with a singer, and as long as the singer was present, she resisted Aegisthus. Aegisthus then took the singer to a deserted island, and Clytemnestra was seduced. During the ten year siege of Troy, the Greeks had looted many cities. At one of them, Chryse, Agamemnon had taken the priest of Apollo Chryses daughter Chryseis. When the priest came to him in order to buy back his daughter Agamemnon refused. Chryses then invoked Apollo to punish the king, and the god descended from the skies, shooting arrows of plague among the Greeks. Achilles learned the cause of all this, and forced Agamemnon to return the girl, directing the kings wrath upon himself. Agamemnon then took the captive maiden Briseis from Achilles, which caused the hero to almost leave the war, and later he was to take the infamous Cassandra back with him to Mycenae. Once home he was murdered in his bath or at dinner by Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, and was avenged by Orestes seven years later.

The story of Agamemnon and Orestes revenge was the inspiration for William Shakespeare when he wrote Hamlet. Greek Gods SparkNotes: The Odyssey: Books 3–4 The Odyssey Books 3–4, page 2 page 1 of 2 Summary: Book 3 At Pylos, Telemachus and Mentor (Athena in disguise) witness an impressive religious ceremony in which dozens of bulls are sacrificed to Poseidon, the god of the sea. Although Telemachus has little experience with public speaking, Mentor gives him the encouragement that he needs to approach Nestor, the city’s king, and ask him about Odysseus. Nestor, however, has no information about the Greek hero. He recounts that after the fall of Troy a falling-out occurred between Agamemnon and Menelaus, the two Greek brothers who had led the expedition. Menelaus set sail for Greece immediately, while Agamemnon decided to wait a day and continue sacrificing on the shores of Troy. Nestor went with Menelaus, while Odysseus stayed with Agamemnon, and he has heard no news of Odysseus.

He says that he can only pray that Athena will show Telemachus the kindness that she showed Odysseus. He adds that he has heard that suitors have taken over the prince’s house in Ithaca and that he hopes that Telemachus will achieve the renown in defense of his father that Orestes, son of Agamemnon, won in defense of his father. Telemachus then asks Nestor about Agamemnon’s fate. Nestor explains that Agamemnon returned from Troy to find that Aegisthus, a base coward who remained behind while the Greeks fought in Troy, had seduced and married his wife, Clytemnestra. With her approval, Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon. He would have then taken over Agamemnon’s kingdom had not Orestes, who was in exile in Athens, returned and killed Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Nestor holds the courage of Orestes up as an example for Telemachus. He sends his own son Pisistratus along to accompany Telemachus to Sparta, and the two set out by land the next day.

Athena, who reveals her divinity by shedding the form of Mentor and changing into an eagle before the entire court of Pylos, stays behind to protect Telemachus’s ship and its crew. Summary: Book 4 In Sparta, the king and queen, Menelaus and Helen, are celebrating the separate marriages of their son and daughter. They happily greet Pisistratus and Telemachus, the latter of whom they soon recognize as the son of Odysseus because of the clear family resemblance. As they all feast, the king and queen recount with melancholy the many examples of Odysseus’s cunning at Troy. Helen recalls how Odysseus dressed as a beggar to infiltrate the city’s walls. Menelaus tells the famous story of the Trojan horse, Odysseus’s masterful gambit that allowed the Greeks to sneak into Troy and slaughter the Trojans. The following day, Menelaus recounts his own return from Troy. He says that, stranded in Egypt, he was forced to capture Proteus, the divine Old Man of the Sea.

Proteus told him the way back to Sparta and then informed him of the fates of Agamemnon and Ajax, another Greek hero, who survived Troy only to perish back in Greece. Proteus also told him news of Odysseus—that he was still alive but was imprisoned by Calypso on her island. Buoyed by this report, Telemachus and Pisistratus return to Pylos to set sail for Ithaca. Meanwhile, the suitors at Odysseus’s house learn of Telemachus’s voyage and prepare to ambush him upon his return. The herald Medon overhears their plans and reports them to Penelope. She becomes distraught when she reflects that she may soon lose her son in addition to her husband, but Athena sends a phantom in the form of Penelope’s sister, Iphthime, to reassure her. Iphthime tells her not to worry, for the goddess will protect Telemachus. Analysis: Books 3–4 The setting broadens in Books 3 and 4 as Telemachus sets out on his own brief odyssey around southern Greece to learn of his father’s fate.

Fittingly, this expansion in setting prompts an expansion in the story itself, as each of Telemachus’s hosts adds his own story to the Odyssey. Here, as throughout the poem, storytelling serves the important function of supplying both the reader and the characters with key details about Odysseus’s travails. Additionally, Nestor’s, Menelaus’s, and Helen’s recountings of various episodes related to the Trojan War tie the Odyssey to cultural legends with which Homer’s audience would have been extremely familiar. 1 National Academic Quiz Tournaments, LLC You Gotta Know These Trojan War Heroes Greeks Agamemnon The king of Mycenae, Agamemnon shares supreme command of the Greek troops with his brother, Menelaus. An epithet of his, "king of heroes," reflects this status. As a commander, however, he often lacks good public relations skills, as shown by his feud with Achilles (book 1) and by his ill-considered strategy of suggesting that all the troops go home (book 2). Upon his return home, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus.

Menelaus The king of Sparta, Menelaus is the husband of Helen, the cause celebre of the war. He tries to win Helen back by fighting Paris in single combat but Aphrodite carried Paris off when it seems that Menelaus will win. Despite his notionally equal say in commanding the troops with his brother Agamemnon, in practice Agamemnon often dominates. Achilles This "swift-footed" warrior is the greatest on the Greek side. His father is Peleus, a great warrior in his own right, and his mother is Thetis, a sea nymph. The consequences of Achilles' rage at Agamemnon for confiscating his geras (prize of honor) are the subject of the Iliad. Achilles kills Hector, but is killed by a poisoned arrow in the heel, the only vulnerable place on his body. Patroclus Achilles' foster brother and closest friend. Although Patroclus is a formidable hero, he is valued for his kind and gentle nature. Patroclus is killed by Hector while wearing the armor of Achilles. Ajax This prince of Salamis is the son of Telamon.

He once fights all afternoon in single combat with Hector; since neither one can decisively wound the other, they part as friends. Ajax's most glorious achievement is fighting the Trojans back from the ships almost singlehandedly. He commits suicide after the armor of Achilles is awarded to Odysseus rather than to himself. Diomedes In his day of glory, Diomedes kills Pandarus and wounds Aeneas before taking on the gods. He stabs Aphrodite in the wrist and, with Athena as his charioteer, wounds Ares in the stomach. Along with Odysseus, he also conducts a successful night raid against King Rhesus. Odysseus This son of Laertes is known for his cleverness and glib tongue. His accomplishments include a successful night raid against King Rhesus, winning the armor of Achilles, and engineering the famous Trojan Horse. His ten-year trip home to Ithaca (where his wife, Penelope, awaits) is the subject of the Odyssey. Nestor, king of Pylos, is too old to participate in the fighting of the Trojan War, but serves as an advisor. He tells tales of "the good old days" to the other heroes.

Trojans Hector The son of Priam and Hecuba, he is probably the noblest character on either side. A favorite of Apollo, this captain of the Trojan forces exchanges gifts with Ajax after neither can conquer the other in single combat. He kills Patroclus when that Greek goes into battle wearing the armor of his friend, Achilles. Killed by Achilles to avenge the death of Patroclus, he is greatly mourned by all of Troy. Funeral games take place in his honor. Paris (sometimes called Alexander) Also the son of Priam and Hecuba, he is destined to be the ruin of his country. He fulfills this destiny by accepting a bribe when asked to judge which of three goddesses is the fairest. When he awards Aphrodite the golden apple, Aphrodite repays him by granting him the most beautiful woman in the world; unfortunately, Helen is already married to Menelaus. Known less for hand-to-hand fighting than for mastery of his bow, he kills Achilles with an arrow but dies by the poisoned arrows of Philoctetes.

Priam The king of Troy and son of Laomedon, he has 50 sons and 12 daughters with his wife Hecuba (presumably she does not bear them all), plus at least 42 more children with various concubines. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, kills him in front of his wife and daughters during the siege of Troy. Hecuba (or Hecabe) The wife of Priam, she suffers the loss of most of her children but survives the fall of Troy. She is later turned into a dog. Andromache The wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax, she futilely warns Hector about the war, then sees both her husband and son killed by the Greeks. After the war she is made concubine to Neoptolemus and later marries the Trojan prophet Helenus. Cassandra This daughter of Priam and Hecuba has an affair with the god Apollo, who grants her the gift of prophecy. Unable to revoke the gift after they quarrel, Apollo curses her by preventing anyone from believing her predictions. Among her warnings is that the Trojan horse contains Greeks.

After Troy falls she is given to Agamemnon, who tactlessly brings her home to his wife Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then kill Agamemnon and Cassandra, leaving Agamemnon's son Orestes (egged on by sister Electra) to avenge the deaths and kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Laocoon Yet another son of Priam and Hecuba, this priest of Apollo shares Cassandra's doubt about the merits of bringing the Trojan horse into the city. "Timeo danaos et dona ferentes," he says (according to Vergil), "I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts." Later, while sacrificing a bull, two serpents from the sea crush both him and his two young sons. The death of Laocoon is often blamed on Athena (into whose temple the serpent disappeared) but more likely the act of Poseidon, a fierce Greek partisan. Aeneas This son of Aphrodite and Anchises often takes a beating but always gets up to rejoin the battle. Knocked unconscious by a large rock thrown by Diomedes, he is evacuated by Aphrodite and Apollo.

He succeeds the late Hector as Trojan troop commander and survives the fall of Troy, ultimately settling in Italy. His son Iulus founds Alba Longa, near the site of Rome. That bloodline is the basis of Julius Caesar's claim to have descended from Venus. This article was synthesized from contributions by Christina Skelton and Candace Benefiel. Agamemnon | Mythology Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Edit Atreus , the father of Agamemnon, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to him after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife, Aerope. Thyestes and his daughter had a child named Aegisthus. He vowed revenge on Atreus' children and successfully murdered Atreus restoring his father's rule. He took the throne and ruled Mycenae with Thyestes. Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with the King of Sparta , Tyndareus . They respectively married Tyndareus' daughters, Clytemnastra and Helen.

Agamemnon had his four children, Orestes, Electra, Iphigenia, and Chrysothemis, with Clytemnastra. After Tyndareus, Menelaus took control of the Spartan throne while Agamemnon had successfully drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes with Menelaus's help. He reclaimed his father's throne and, through conquest, had become the most powerful Greek ruler. Agamemnon's family history had been marred by rape, murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by their 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 Edit When Paris of Troy took Helen back to Troy with him, Menelaus sought Agamemnon's help in retrieving her. Agamemnon, who wanted to conqueror Troy, lead a coalition of Greek kingdoms to attack Troy.

Preparing for departure from Aulis , a port in Boeotia , Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis . There are several reasons for this: Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at war in Troy, Artemis is angry due to Agamemnon slaying a sacred animal of Artemis, or that he boasted that he was equal in hunting. Plague and a lack of wind prevented his army from sailing. Eventually, the prophet Calchas says that the sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, will allow him to sail for Troy. Agamemnon, in some versions, willingly sacrifices his daughter and sets sail; whereas in other versions, prepares to sacrifice Iphigenia, but Artemis replaces her with a deer at the last minute. In the latter, she is said to have been whisked away to Taurus in Crimea where she became the goddess Hecate , according to the Greek writer Hesiod . Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Achaean (Greek) army during the Trojan War . During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus , a son of Priam, and 15 other Trojan soldiers.

Agamemnon's teamster, Halaesus , later fought with the significant early "Roman" founder Aeneas in Italy. The Iliad tells os the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the tenth and last year of the war. Agamemnon took an attractive slave, as a prize, Briseis , from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war. (Later however Achilles returned when Patroclus his friend had died wearing Achilles' armor.) 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.

Death Edit Agamemnon was afterwards slain by Clytaemnestra and her lover, Agisthos, in Argos after his grand return from Troy, in his house. He later was avenged by his son Orestês who, with the help of Electra, killed their mother and Aegisthus . He appears later as a shade in the Land of the Dead where Odysseus comes to in the Odyssey , and warns Odysseus likewise to not create a big show on his own return to Ithaca, telling him that wives of the Achaeans can't be trusted, for fear that Penelopê his wife might have turned against Odysseus during the twenty years of him being gone at Troy and would slay him as Clytaemnestra did to Agamemnon. Odysseus took this advice. Family Cassandra in the Classical World Cassandra in the Classical World C assandra (also called Alexandra), in Greek myth, the prophetic daughter of Priam, king of Troy, and Hecuba his wife. For Homer, who knows nothing of her prophetic gifts, she is the most beautiful of Priam's daughters.

It was according to a later tradition that she was loved by Apollo and given the gift of prophecy, but when she refused his love he condemned her to the fate of always prophesying truthfully but never being believed. She appears in Greek tragedy in this role, vainly foretelling the fall of Troy. When Troy was captured, Ajax the Locrian, son of Oileus, found her in the temple of Athena clinging to the sacred statue of the goddess (the Palladium), dragged her away, and raped her. To expiate this sacrilege the Locrians were obliged to send two maidens to Troy every year for a thousand years to serve as slaves in Athena's temple; if they were caught by the inhabitants before reaching the temple they were executed. This obligation continued into the second century BC. After the sack of Troy Cassandra was awarded to the Greek commander Agamemnon as his concubine, but on their return to Mycenae she was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra. From The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Copyright � 1989 by Oxford University Press. Robert E.

Bell Cassandra was a daughter of Priam and Hecuba. She was also called Alexandra. She was very beautiful, but her family and the people of Troy considered her a little unbalanced. This came about because of her gift of prophecy. When she was a child, she and her brother Helenus were left overnight in the temple of the Thymbraean Apollo. No reason has been advanced for this night in the temple; perhaps it was a ritual routinely performed by everyone. When their parents looked in on them the next morning, the children were entwined with serpents, which flicked their tongues into the children's ears. This enabled Cassandra and Helenus to divine the future. After Cassandra grew up, she again spent a night in the temple. This time the god appeared and tried to get her to yield to his desire, but she refused. For this affront to him he punished her by causing her prophecies, though true, to be disbelieved. This curse failed to be effective on only one occasion. When Paris appeared as an adult at the court of Priam, Cassandra declared him her brother. It had been accepted by everyone that he had died in infancy from being exposed.

After the war began, Cassandra continued to predict the calamities in store for the Trojans. Nobody believed her but, perhaps deciding she was bad for the war effort, Priam concealed her in a locked chamber, where she was guarded like a madwoman. Mad though she might have been considered, she was still highly regarded for her beauty. During the war, both Othryoneus of Cabesus and Coroebus, son of Mydon, asked for her hand, but both were killed in the war. When Telephus reinforced the Trojans with an army of Mysians, Priam betrothed Cassandra to his son Eurypylus. He was also killed. Cassandras curse of not being heeded came to a climax when she announced there were men in the wooden horse. Only Laocoon believed her, but he was soon silenced, and this seemed to confirm that Cassandra was merely raving again. It probably would not have mattered whether or not she was married to one of her unfortunate suitors, as things turned out. At the taking of Troy, she fled to the temple of Athena and embraced the statue of the goddess as a suppliant.

The Lesser Ajax found her there and, violating one of the most powerful interdicts in ancient religion, dragged her from the temple. Some said he raped her in the sanctuary. She never learned that he paid the supreme price for his great violence and short pleasure. When the spoils of Troy were allotted, Cassandra was given to Agamemnon. Some said he had spread the report that Ajax had raped her so he could have her to himself Others say he tried to save Polyxena from being sacrificed on Achilles' grave, again to ingratiate himself with Cassandra. He carried her with him to Mycenae, but she was scarcely in his hands before he forced her into sexual relations. As a result of this union she became pregnant and bore twins--Teledamus and Pelops. This poses a question. The trip to Mycenae could not in Agamemnon's case have taken a great deal of time since, unlike several of the other Greeks, he had no difficulties in reaching home. Therefore, he must have stayed in Troy for a few more months--as leader of the Greek army of occupation. [. . .

.] There is the possibility that the twins were born on shipboard or even after arrival in Mycenae, but all accounts seem to suggest that Cassandra arrived with the babies. Agamemnon, expecting to arrive home in glory, was murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus, shortly after his arrival. Cassandra was murdered by Clytemnestra, and the twins were killed by Aegisthus. Agamemnon's bringing Cassandra back with him is repeated often as a principal motive for the slaughter, but Clytemnestra had reasons enough without Cassandra. Some say that the murders took place at Amyclae, although nobody gives a reason. This claim allowed the Amyclaeans to say that Cassandra was buried there. She also had a statue at Amyclae and at Leuctra in Laconia. Mycenae, however, had the best reason for saying her tomb was there, and Schliemann, the archaeologist, was certain of this when he found the remains of a woman and two infants in one of the circle graves at Mycenae. The story of Cassandra is one of the most poignant of all the stories of women in the Trojan War.

Possessing the divine gift of prophecy carried with it an obligation, and the principal responsibility would have been the protection of homeland and the whole Trojan race. Not being taken seriously would have been frustrating and heartbreaking enough under any circumstances, but with the safety of a whole nation at stake, Cassandra must occasionally have approached the borders of the insanity with which she was labeled. It is not difficult to think of her as a beautiful but disheveled young woman, wild-eyed and shrill. It is not too much of an exaggeration to compare her with modern-day fanatics who claim the world is ending on such and such a day. We cannot be sure that, along with everything else, she might not have developed a reputation for being obnoxious with her superior knowledge. The tendency is to regard her as a victim of circumstances, someone severely wronged by men and gods alike. Her tragedy was knowing the unhappy truth and revealing it, something highly unwelcome then as now. From Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991. Copyright � 1991 by Robert E. Bell.

Visual Representations of Cassandra Agamemnon Agamemnon Summary Agamemnon Agamemnon Summary NEXT The play begins with a Watchman sitting on the roof of King Agamemnon's palace, complaining about his life. This is the tenth year he has had to spend the night up on the roof, in the cold and the wet, waiting for a sign that the Trojan War is over. Need a little context here? Never fear: Shmoop is here. Before we go ahead and tell you everything though, a word of warning. Aeschylus's Agamemnon is kind of like a mystery; a lot of information about the back-story doesn't come out until later, and we don't want to spoil your fun in learning about it. That said, there are some extremely basic things that every member of the play's original Ancient Greek audience member would have known, even before they went to the theater. Most basically of all, they would have known the facts of the Trojan War. So we're going to fill you in on that now, and let the play take its own course in revealing other stuff later.

If you want a really good summary of the deep causes of the Trojan War and some of its major events, we recommend that you check out this website , maintained by Stanford University. That said, there are a couple of differences between Aeschylus's version of the story and the versions of Homer and the other authors featured on the Stanford site. So, even though you should definitely check out that timeline, we're still going to give you a few basic pointers to help navigate Aeschylus's version of the story in his Agamemnon. Ten years before Agamemnon begins, two brothers, Agamemnon and Menelaus, were the most important Greek kings. Their father was a guy called Atreus. Atreus was a pretty nasty dude, but we'll learn more about him as the play progresses, so we don't have to deal with him right now. According to Aeschylus, Menelaus and Agamemnon were both kings of a city called Argos. (Homer tells things slightly differently; check out our Shmoop guides on the Iliad and Odyssey or the Stanford site for more info.) If you want to know where Argos is, check out this map .

One day, a visitor arrived in Argos. It was Paris, the handsome young prince of Troy – a city in modern Turkey. This visit had some unfortunate consequences. Paris seduced Helen, the wife of Menelaus, and took her back with him to Troy. Determined to get her back, Agamemnon and Menelaus rounded up a fleet of a thousand Greek ships and sailed off to kick some Trojan butt. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as planned. First of all, there was some trouble on the way to Troy, which we'll learn about later. But the biggest trouble came when they got there. The city was definitely not easy to capture. Instead, they ended up besieging it for ten years. This is where Aeschylus's Agamemnon begins: back home in Argos, in the tenth year of the war, where the guard is waiting for news that King Agamemnon will be coming home. Does this make sense now? OK, so the Watchman starts off by saying how his life sucks because he's been stuck up on top of a roof every night for ten years. Can you blame him?

But that's not all that's the matter: he also says that the royal household is not being managed as well as it used to be, when Agamemnon was there. (Insert ominous music here.) Then, all of a sudden, something amazing happens: far in the distance, the Watchman sees a signal fire burning. This is the sign he has been waiting for. Hardly able to contain his excitement, the Watchman passes the word along to Queen Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife. Now the Watchman leaves the stage. At the same time, the Chorus, a group of old men, walks in. For more information on the role of choruses in Greek tragedy, check out our sections on "Genre" and "Writing Style"; the basic idea, though, is that it's a group of characters on stage who comment on the main action through song and dance. Right off the bat, the Chorus starts talking about the beginning of the Trojan War, ten years ago. Fortunately, we now have the info to know what the heck they're talking about.

Basically, the Chorus points out how the two sons of Atreus – i.e., Menelaus and Agamemnon – launched a massive war against Troy, all for the sake of a woman: Helen, Menelaus's wife. Then they say how they didn't go to war because they're old men, and how life sucks when you're old.Then the Chorus turns to face the doors of the palace, and calls out to Clytemnestra, asking her why there has been so much commotion in the city, with fires being lit, sacrifices being made, and so on. Without getting any response, the Chorus keeps on singing. Actually, they turn things up a notch. Here's what the Chorus says now: Menelaus and Agamemnon had justice on their side when they brought war against Troy. You could tell this was true because, just when they were about to sail off, two eagles (one black and one white) flew by on the right-hand side. In ancient times, birds could be interpreted as signs from the gods: if they flew by on the right, that was good; if they flew by on the left, that was bad.

Then the two eagles swooped down on a pregnant hare. In sight of the entire Greek fleet, they devoured it and its unborn young. Among those watching this was Calchas, the Greek's official soothsayer. Calchas told everybody that this was clearly a sign from the gods: the two eagles represented the two sons of Atreus, Menelaus and Agamemnon; the hare with its young represented Troy, which they would capture and destroy. That was the good news. The bad news, according to Calchas, was that the goddess Artemis , who sided with the Trojans, would give them trouble. There was a risk, Calchas said, that she would give the Greeks bad weather to keep them from traveling. Then, she might wait until she had received a horrible sacrifice before bringing blue skies round again. She might do this, according to Calchas, because an evil spirit lurked in the house of Agamemnon! (Insert ominous music here.) But we don't know anything about this yet, so we can't give you any more information. Sorry: you'll just have to wait. After finishing this part of their story, the Chorus moves into a new phase of their song.

The new phase of their song (which begins at line 160) is very, very famous, and is often referred to as the "Ode to Zeus." This passage contains some of Agamemnon's most important themes, so, you know, you might want to pay attention. We're just saying. The Chorus begins the "Ode to Zeus" by saying that Zeus is super-awesome, and they can't compare anything to him. Fair enough. Then they talk about how human greatness is fleeting, blah blah, you know the drill. But then comes the important part; as the Chorus puts it in Christopher Collard's (Oxford World Classics) translation: "but a man readily crying triumph for Zeus / will meet with wisdom totally – / Zeus who put men on wisdom's road, / who gave 'Suffer and learn' / authority" (174-178).

In case you need a translation of that translation, the basic idea is this: "If you want wisdom, you'd better respect Zeus: Zeus sets people on the path to wisdom, and he set things up so that people learn through suffering." Remember that last phrase: "Suffer and learn," which in Greek is pathei mathos. (This literally translates to "In suffering [there is] learning.") What do you think it means? If it isn't clear right away, don't worry: if you suffer through the rest of the play, you'll learn. Not that you'll be suffering, of course. But this is one of the play's key themes, so you'll be hearing it a lot. The end of the "Ode to Zeus" takes us back into the main story that the Chorus was telling us beforehand. Now they say how, sure enough, as the Greeks were sailing on their way to Troy, they ran into some bad weather and couldn't go any further. Specifically, the Greeks got stuck at Aulis, which you can see in this map . (Note that this map says that Agamemnon comes from Mycenae, Menelaus comes from Sparta, and Diomedes comes from Argos.

That's because this map reflects Homer's version of the Trojan War; we're following Aeschylus's version now, in which Agamemnon and Menelaus both come from Argos.) OK, so the Greeks were stuck at Aulis. What then? The Chorus says that Calchas told Agamemnon that the only way he could bring Artemis around to his side was by sacrificing his daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon debated whether or not he should follow through on this. Eventually, though, the Chorus tells us, "he put on the yoke-strap of compulsion" (218) and decided to go through with the sacrifice. Agamemnon's men tied Iphigenia up and gagged her so she couldn't curse them. What happens next? The Chorus doesn't tell us, but we get the hint. (Iphigenia was killed.) The Chorus finishes up their song by saying, "Let's not talk about the future; we'll know it when it comes. Let's just hope things turn out well." Then, Clytemnestra appears on stage.

The Chorus says to her, "What's up?" In reply, Clytemnestra tells them that Troy has been captured by the Achaeans. But then the Chorus says, "How the heck do you know that?" Clytemnestra says, "Easy. Fire told me." Then she explains how, after the city was captured, someone lit a bonfire on top of Mount Ida, near Troy. Then, somebody on the island of Lemnos, in the middle of the Aegean Sea (between mainland Greece and modern Turkey) saw that bonfire and lit a bonfire of his own. Then somebody on Mount Athos in the Chalcidice region of Northern Greece saw that fire and…well, you get the picture. Eventually, somebody on Mount Arachnae lit a watch-fire – the same one that the watchman saw in the first scene of the play.

The Chorus says, "Ooh, tell us more, tell us more." Clytemnestra says, "The Greeks captured the city, killed lots of people, enslaved Troy's women and children; now they're on their way home." The Chorus says, "Word." Then Clytemnestra heads offstage, back into the palace. Now the Chorus sings another song. This time, they start by praising Zeus, the king of the gods, for casting his net over Troy (the metaphor comes from fishing). The Chorus takes this as a sign that the gods watch over humans and ensure justice. As an example of this, the Chorus references Paris (a.k.a. Alexandros), who carried off Menelaus's wife Helen. After these lovebirds sailed back to Troy, Argos was up in arms. The house was full of misery now that Helen was gone. This misery continued once the armies had sailed off for Troy. Now, as the war waged on through the years, the citizens lamented to see their loved ones come home as cremated ashes.

After enough of this, the citizens began to grumble: "Why do we have to endure all this for the sake of some other guy's wife?" they asked. But then the Chorus comes back to the recent news about the fall of Troy. They don't completely believe it yet, because they don't want to be disappointed in case it turns out to be false. Still, they are pretty excited. While the Chorus is still going on about the news, a Herald appears on stage. The Chorus decides to hit him up for some more specific information. The Herald's first words are to praise the land he has missed for so long, and which he now sees again with his own eyes. The Chorus tells him that the people of Argos have missed the army, too. Then the Herald starts to tell the Chorus about all the hardships the army went through while besieging Troy. But then he rounds it off by saying that there's no point in dwelling on the misery of the past: the army should be happy now that they have succeeded and arrived back home. The Herald rounds off his speech by praising Zeus who has brought all this about. Just when he finishes speaking, out comes Clytemnestra from the palace.

Clytemnestra basically tells everybody, "I told you so." Then she tells the Herald to hurry off to Agamemnon and tell him to come quickly. She also announces that she has been totally faithful to him while he's been gone. Then she heads inside the palace, offstage. When she's gone, the Chorus turns to the Herald and says, "That's what she says; don't be surprised if you find out it isn't exactly the truth." Then, seemingly wanting to change the topic, the Chorus asks the Herald to tell them what's happened to Menelaus. The Herald says, "Beats the heck out of me. On the way back, there was a huge storm, and Menelaus got separated from the rest of the fleet. We don't know if he's alive or dead." The Herald says that, if anyone is keeping Menelaus alive, it must be Zeus, who doesn't want to destroy the family of Atreus completely. Then the Herald leaves. At this point, the Chorus starts singing again. This time, the Chorus sings about Helen.

They make a joke about her name, which sounds like the Greek word for to "capture, overcome, destroy," as Christopher Collard points out. In the edition we use, by Collard, he gets the same point across by making the Chorus call Helen "hellish." The Chorus says that this was a good name for her since, after she ran off with Paris, she ended up being "hellish" for Troy. This is of course because of the destruction the Greeks brought with them when they came in pursuit of her. They also blame Paris, though without making any jokes about his name. The Chorus compares the experience of Priam, king of Troy, in raising Paris, to that of a man who raised a lion-cub, which grew up to slaughter his livestock. Then the Chorus refers to an old proverb, which says basically that "Successful people have dumb kids." But then the Chorus members say that they don't believe in this proverb. Instead, they say that it's wicked people who have wicked children. They round off their song by telling how the goddess Justice likes to hang out in the houses of people who are just.

When she finds herself in the houses of unjust people, however, she says, "Let's blow this pop-stand." Just when the Chorus stops singing, whose chariot should roll into town but Agamemnon's – with Agamemnon in it, of course. Immediately, the Chorus tells Agamemnon, "Hey Agamemnon! You rock! We used to be kind of skeptical about the whole war thing, but now we're cool with it. Seriously. You'll be able to tell who's loyal and whose not. And we are." Agamemnon doesn't seem to care too much, however. In fact, his first words don't even acknowledge the Chorus's existence. Instead, he talks about how happy he is to be back in Argos, and how the Trojans got what was coming to them. Finally, however, Agamemnon turns his attention back to the Chorus. He thanks them for their words and remarks how difficult it is for people not to be jealous of those who are successful. Then he talks about what a good friend Odysseus was to him – but he doesn't know where Odysseus is.

Next he announces that he will hold meetings to see what's going on in the city. (Clearly, Agamemnon is rambling.) He rounds things off by announcing that he is about to go into his house. (Thanks for the info, Agamemnon.) Then, all of a sudden, who should appear in front of the palace, but Clytemnestra! Clytemnestra says to everyone, "I love my hubby so, so much, I'm not embarrassed to say it! The whole time he was gone, I kept getting reports that he was hurt, and I was so worried! Every day, I nearly killed myself!" Then she turns to Agamemnon and says, "That's why our son Orestes isn't here; I sent him away to be brought up by your friend Strophius the Phocian. He'll be safer that way." Clytemnestra rounds off her speech by saying how glad she is that Agamemnon is back. But then she does something unexpected. She tells him that he should get out of his chariot and head into the house without his feet touching the ground.

Then she calls to her slave-women to roll out a purple fabric for him to walk on. (Think of it as rolling out the red carpet.) OK, before telling you what happens next, we have to interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you an Urgent Historical Context Update. The key words here are: dye, expensive, piety , and snails. Snails? We'd better explain. In Ancient Times, Greek as well as Roman, purple dye was extremely, extremely expensive. If you had anything dyed purple, that meant you were definitely in the top tier of society. Thus, in Ancient Rome (a little after the Agamemnon takes place) they actually used laws about who could wear purple as a way of reinforcing status divisions; only Senators were allowed to wear a purple band on their togas. Why was purple dye so expensive? Because it only came from one, really weird source: sea-snails. In case you were wondering, this is what Clytemnestra is talking about at lines 958-960, when she says (in the Collard translation): "The sea is there – and who shall quench it?

– nurturing the juices which yield much purple worth its weight in silver, wholly renewable, the dye of vestments." Get it now? OK, you're probably saying. You've told us about the "dye" and the "expensive" and the "snails" bits, but where does "piety" fit in? So glad you asked. Here, you have to bear in mind the Greek concept of "hubris" (sometimes spelled "hybris"), which translates roughly to "getting to big for your britches." The Greeks considered anyone "hubristic" if they tried to equal to, or better than, the gods. They also thought that such people stood a pretty good chance of getting struck by lightning, or having something else nasty afflict them from on high. As we are about to see, Agamemnon is very afraid about walking on the purple fabrics because he thinks only a god would have the guts to do that. Thus, he is afraid of seeming hubristic, and thus inviting the punishment of the gods. Does this make sense? Well, we sure hope so.

Anyway, this is the end of our Urgent Historical Context Update; let's see how this info plays out in the scene between Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. As we have just seen, Clytemnestra has rolled out the purple fabrics and told Agamemnon to walk on them instead of getting his feet dirty. In response, Agamemnon says, "No way, that would be acting like a god. I can't do that." But Clytemnestra isn't satisfied with that. Instead, she indulges in the verbal equivalent of flapping her arms like a chicken and crowing "Buk-buk bu-kaaawk!" Thus, she starts off by saying, "You're telling me that if you were ever really, really scared, you wouldn't swear an oath to walk on purple fabrics, so long as the gods got you off the hook?" Agamemnon says, "Uhh, sure, I guess I would." Then Clytemnestra says, "And what about Priam, the King of Troy.

You're telling me that Priam wouldn't have walked on purple fabrics to celebrate a victory as big as yours?" Agamemnon says, "Uhh, sure, I guess he would." Clytemnestra says, "So what's the big deal? Walk on the freakin' fabrics!" "But the people won't like it," says Agamemnon. "They'll be cool with it," says Clytemnestra. After enough of this back and forth, Agamemnon decides to do as he's told. Before heading into the palace, however, he turns and points to the Trojan princess Cassandra, who is standing in his chariot. Agamemnon has brought her back from Troy as a slave. Then Agamemnon starts walking on the fabrics. Clytemnestra makes a little speech about how the sea can generate as much more purple dye as they want. She boasts about how wealthy they are, and remarks on how great it is that Agamemnon has come home. Agamemnon prays to Zeus that everything will be OK. Then he enters the palace, offstage. Clytemnestra goes inside too, along with the slave-women, who gather up the carpet.

At this point, the Chorus begins singing. The subject of their song is fear – the strange sense of unease they feel at Agamemnon's arrival, even if they can't quite figure out why. Then the Chorus sings about how human life is unstable: at one moment, a person can be on top of the world; at the next, that same person might be lying in the gutter. When the Chorus stops singing, Clytemnestra comes back out in front of the palace. She tells Cassandra to come inside. Cassandra doesn't answer. Then, the Chorus tells her to listen to Clytemnestra. Cassandra still doesn't answer, nor does she make any move toward the house. Eventually, Clytemnestra reasons that Cassandra, as a Trojan, must simply not be able to understand the Greek language. Clytemnestra decides not to waste any more time on this matter, so she heads into the house, offstage. Now the Chorus tries again to convince Cassandra to go inside. All of a sudden, Cassandra starts speaking – or rather, singing and chanting. The words of her chant are expressions of pure horror. As Collard translates it: "O-o-o-oh! Horror!

No! / O Apollo, O Apollo!" (The sound that Collard translates as "O-o-o-oh!" sounds even weirder in Greek: "ototototoi!") The Chorus asks her what's the matter, but she just keeps chanting about horror, and talking about how Apollo has destroyed her. Eventually, Cassandra asks Apollo what house she has come to. The Chorus says, "Don't you know, this is the house of the sons of Atreus!" But Cassandra disagrees: she says that she has come to a slaughterhouse – a slaughterhouse where family members have killed family members. The Chorus knows what she's talking about, but doesn't go into too many details. Then Cassandra starts prophesying that Agamemnon will be killed – by his own wife! The Chorus is very confused and disturbed by this. Then Cassandra starts saying that she is going to die too. The Chorus wavers between understanding exactly what she's saying, and pretending not to; they also say that they are helpless to do anything about it.

Finally, Cassandra provides a pretty clear hint that she knows about the murders that took place in the palace – the children of Thyestes whom Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus's father) butchered and served to him. She also alludes to the fact that Thyestes slept with Atreus's wife, which provoked the whole thing. The Chorus tells her that she's right; they're amazed that a foreigner could have learned about this story. Cassandra tells them that she knows because of the prophetic power she was given by the god Apollo. The Chorus says, "Why did he do that? He must have had a huge crush on you." Cassandra reveals that this was, in fact the case. But even though she had promised to sleep with Apollo, at the last minute she changed her mind – after he had given her the power of prophecy though. In revenge for this, however, Cassandra explains, Apollo cursed her. He made it so that, even though she had the power of prophecy, she was condemned to have no one believe her. The Chorus tells her that they believe her, however.

(What do you make of this, Shmoop readers?) Then, all of a sudden, Cassandra starts having another vision. This one is really spooky. She says that she sees the children of Thyestes nearby, holding their own guts in their hands. Yup. Cassandra finishes her prophecy by saying that some "bitch" (like, literally, a female dog) is going to kill Agamemnon. The Chorus doesn't know what to make of this. In fact, they simply tell Cassandra to shut up, on the off chance that her words might bring bad luck against Agamemnon. When Cassandra persists, they ask her (in Collard's translation), "What man is to bring this evil thing about?" Realizing that the Chorus clearly didn't get the point of the whole "female dog" reference, she just says, "You guys are way off track." The Chorus tries to press her further, but she just goes off into another prophetic trance. This time, Cassandra speaks again in metaphorical terms about how Clytemnestra is going to kill Agamemnon – and her too. She says that this is Apollo's final way of punishing her.

But then, she reflects that someone will come to avenge her and Agamemnon, a child born to kill his own mother. Finally, comforted by this, and by the fact that the man who captured Troy (Agamemnon) is about to die, she accepts death. Just before Cassandra heads inside, she stops, repulsed by the smell of blood she claims is coming from inside. The Chorus tries to figure out what's going on, but doesn't succeed. Then Cassandra tells them that she and Agamemnon are going to die; she prays that whoever comes to avenge Agamemnon will avenge her too. Then, after offering a brief reflection on the fragility of human life, she heads inside. After Cassandra goes inside, the Chorus starts chanting; they also reflect on how short human life is, and how nobody, not even someone born with silver spoons in their mouths, can know for certain how his or her life will turn out. The Chorus is interrupted, however, by a cry from inside the palace (i.e., a cry from offstage.) It is Agamemnon, saying (in Collard's translation), "O-oh!

I have been struck deep, a fatal blow!" The Chorus calls out, "What happened?" Then they hear Agamemnon say (in Collard's translation), "O-oh! Again! Struck a second blow!" Now the Chorus goes into a frenzy, different voices coming in and out of focus as its members try to figure out what to do. At first, most of the voices argue that they should act immediately; but then others point out that they don't really know what's going on; after much bandying back and forth, a majority finally resolves to form an exploratory committee to find out the facts. For the moment, they will take no action. Then, the door of the palace opens. We see Clytemnestra standing over the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra. Clytemnestra says, "All that stuff I said before – that was just for show. It was necessary because I had to kill my husband. Now that I have, I feel great! You guys should throw a party. As for myself, I'm having a fun time boasting." The Chorus doesn't like this. So what's a Chorus to do? They start chanting.

The gist of their chant is that Clytemnestra should be banished from the city. Clytemnestra says, "No way. Agamemnon was the bad guy – he sacrificed his own daughter! Don't you think he was the one you should have banished?" The Chorus doesn't agree, and says that Clytemnestra will have to pay the price for what she did. Clytemnestra says "Fat chance. Justice is on my side – and so is Aegisthus; he'll protect me. Anyway, Agamemnon was a scumbag." The Chorus says, "Oh, this all stinks; we hope we die soon." Then they go into a misogynistic rant about how a woman brought about Agamemnon's death, and how a woman (Helen) was the cause of the Trojan War. Clytemnestra says: "Get over it." In fact, she even goes on to say that she isn't responsible for killing Agamemnon; she blames the Fury of vengeance, which is coming back to get Agamemnon for the crime his father committed against his brother Thyestes.

When the Chorus asks who will take care of Agamemnon's funeral preparations, Clytemnestra tells them, "Mind your own business!" She gives a hint, though, of what his funeral will entail, when she says that the only person to lament Agamemnon will be his daughter Iphigenia, in the Underworld. We're guessing this means she's not going to great lengths about it. Then Aegisthus comes on stage. Aegisthus says that he now believes that the gods are just, now that he has seen Agamemnon murdered. Aegisthus explicitly links up what happened to Agamemnon to what happened to his own father, Thyestes. Aegisthus explains how Atreus, Agamemnon's father, killed Thyestes's children and fed them to him. (Aegisthus leaves out the part about how Thyestes slept with Atreus's wife.) Aegisthus thinks that Justice brought him back to avenge his murdered brothers and sisters. When the Chorus starts questioning him, however, Aegisthus asserts his authority and tells them to shut up.

The Chorus and Aegisthus then get into a back and forth argument, with the Chorus calling Aegisthus a wuss because he didn't go fight at Troy, and because he resorted to scheming with a woman to bring down Agamemnon, instead of facing him head-to-head. Aegisthus replies that he did what he had to do. Things escalate to a point where it looks like Aegisthus and the Chorus are about to fight each other with swords – but then Clytemnestra steps in. Clytemnestra tells the Chorus to go home, and tells Aegisthus to come with her inside the palace. Aegisthus and the Chorus trade a few more harsh words; the Chorus hopes that Orestes will come home and settle Aegisthus's hash. Then, Clytemnestra takes Aegisthus inside; in the last words of the play, she says that she and he will now be joint rulers in Argos.

Question: Who was the wife of the Greek hero Agamemnon who murdered him on his return from Troy?
Answer: CLYTEMNESTRA