Agamemnon
Agamemnon, in Greek legend, king of Mycenae or Argos. He was the son (or grandson) of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and his wife Aërope and was the brother of Menelaus. After Atreus was murdered by his nephew Aegisthus (son of Thyestes), Agamemnon and Menelaus took refuge with Tyndareus, king of Sparta, whose daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen, they respectively married. By Clytemnestra, Agamemnon had a son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigeneia (Iphianassa), Electra (Laodice), and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus, and Agamemnon recovered his father’s kingdom.
When Paris (Alexandros), son of King Priam of Troy, carried off Helen, Agamemnon called on the princes of the country to unite in a war of revenge against the Trojans. He himself furnished 100 ships and was chosen commander in chief of the combined forces. The fleet assembled at the port of Aulis in Boeotia but was prevented from sailing by calms or contrary winds that were sent by the goddess Artemis because Agamemnon had in some way offended her. To appease the wrath of Artemis, Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigeneia.
After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, Priam’s daughter, fell to Agamemnon’s lot in the distribution of the prizes of war. On his return Agamemnon landed in Argolis, where Aegisthus had, in the interval, seduced Clytemnestra. The pair treacherously carried out the murders of Agamemnon, his comrades, and Cassandra. In Agamemnon, by the Greek poet and dramatist Aeschylus, however, Clytemnestra was made to do the killing. The murder was avenged by Orestes, who returned to slay both his mother and her paramour.
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epic: The heroic life…because its commander in chief, Agamemnon, refuses to return a captive, Chryseis, to her father, a priest of Apollo who offers a generous ransom. By unjustly insulting Achilles, Agamemnon commits another excess that causes the defeat of his army. Achilles, in the meantime, lets Ate take possession of his mind… -
Troy: The Trojan War…tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of (among others) Achilles’ friend Patroclus and Priam’s eldest son, Hector.… -
Achilles…warrior of the army of Agamemnon in the Trojan War. According to Homer, Achilles was brought up by his mother at Phthia with his cousin and inseparable companion Patroclus. One of the non-Homeric tales of his childhood relates that Thetis dipped Achilles in the waters of the River Styx, by…
