Agamemnon

Overview

Agamemnon is the king of Mycenae and commander of the Greek coalition in the Trojan War. A son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus, he stands at the centre of the House of Atreus, the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the fall of Troy and the cycle of revenge that ends in his murder by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

Generation

Trojan War

Symbols

Sceptre, Mycenae

Notes

Agamemnon is one of the central royal figures of the Trojan War tradition. He is usually presented as king of Mycenae, son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus. When Helen is taken to Troy, Agamemnon becomes commander of the Greek coalition assembled to recover her.

His authority is powerful but repeatedly difficult. In the Iliad, Agamemnon's conflict with Achilles becomes one of the central causes of crisis within the Greek army. Their dispute over honour and status leads Achilles to withdraw from the fighting, with disastrous consequences for the Greeks.

Before the fleet can sail for Troy, Agamemnon also becomes involved in the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia at Aulis. Ancient traditions differ over why Artemis is angry with him and over whether Iphigenia actually dies, but the episode becomes one of the most important events in the later history of his household.

The sacrifice helps explain Clytemnestra's hatred of Agamemnon. During the ten years of the Trojan War, Clytemnestra forms a relationship with Aegisthus, whose own connection with the House of Atreus reaches back to the feud between Atreus and Thyestes.

Agamemnon eventually returns home after the fall of Troy, bringing Cassandra with him as a captive. Cassandra knows that death awaits them, but her prophetic curse means that her warnings are not believed.

Agamemnon is then murdered by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. Ancient sources differ over the precise circumstances of the killing and over the relative responsibility of the two conspirators, but his death becomes the immediate cause of Orestes' later revenge.

His story therefore connects several of the largest narrative cycles in Greek mythology. Through Menelaus he belongs to the background of the Trojan War; through Iphigenia and Clytemnestra he connects the war to the destruction of his own household; and through Orestes his murder becomes part of the later conflict between vengeance and justice.

Agamemnon also belongs to the longer curse of the House of Atreus. The violence between Atreus and Thyestes does not end with their generation. Aegisthus, descended from Thyestes, becomes one of the agents of Agamemnon's death, while Orestes continues the cycle by killing Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.

The surviving Greek tradition therefore presents Agamemnon as more than a victorious war leader. He is a king whose military authority, family history and personal decisions place him at the intersection of the Trojan War and one of Greek tragedy's most enduring cycles of inherited violence.