Different etymologies have been proposed for the nameAgamemnon (Ἀγαμέμνων). According to one view, the name means 'very steadfast', 'unbowed' or 'resolute'.[3] This is based on the interpretation of the name as a compound word comprising the elementsἄγαν 'very much' andμένω 'to stay, wait; stand fast'.[4] According to another view, the name developed from theunattested form *Ἀγαμέδμων (*Agamédmōn), a compound word composed of the elementsἄγαν 'very much' andμέδομαι[5] 'to think on, provide for', with the overall meaning of 'very mindful'. Yet another proposal derives the second part of the compound word fromμέμονα 'to be inclined, to wish eagerly, to strive' for the overall meaning of 'very eagerly wishing'.[4] LinguistVáclav Blažek proposes a relationship withVedic SanskritAgni on etymological and functional bases.[6]
Fourth century BC depiction ofChryses attempting to ransom his daughterChryseis from Agamemnon.
Agamemnon was a descendant ofPelops, son ofTantalus.[7] According to the common story (as told in theIliad andOdyssey of Homer), Agamemnon and his younger brotherMenelaus were the sons ofAtreus, king ofMycenae, andAerope, daughter of theCretan kingCatreus.[8] However, according to another tradition, Agamemnon and Menelaus were the sons of Atreus' sonPleisthenes, with their mother being Aerope,Cleolla, or Eriphyle. In this tradition, Pleisthenes dies young, with Agamemnon and Menelaus being raised by Atreus.[9] Agamemnon had a sisterAnaxibia (orAstyoche) who marriedStrophius, the son ofCrisus.[10]
Agamemnon's father, Atreus, murdered the sons of his twin brotherThyestes and fed them to Thyestes after discovering Thyestes'adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fatheredAegisthus with his own daughter,Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus murdered Atreus, restored Thyestes to the throne, and took possession of the throne of Mycenae and jointly ruled with his father. During this period, Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus took refuge withTyndareus, King ofSparta.[11]
In Sparta, Agamemnon and Menelaus respectively married Tyndareus' daughtersClytemnestra andHelen. In some stories (such asIphigenia at Aulis byEuripides) Clytemnestra was already married toTantalus, and Agamemnon murders him and the couple's infant son before marrying Clytemnestra.[12][13]
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.[11]
Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished bymurder,incest, andtreachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor,Tantalus, and then of a curse placed uponPelops, son of Tantalus, byMyrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of theHouse of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods.[citation needed]
Agamemnon gathers the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. In order to recruitOdysseus, who is feigning madness so as to not have to go to war, Agamemnon sendsPalamedes, who threatens to kill Odysseus' infant son,Telemachus. Odysseus is forced to stop acting mad in order to save his son and joins the assembled Greek forces.[14] Preparing to depart fromAulis, a port inBoeotia, Agamemnon's army incurs the wrath of the goddessArtemis, although the myths give various reasons for this. InAeschylus' playAgamemnon, Artemis is angry for she predicts that so many young men will die at Troy, whereas inSophocles'Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasts that he is her equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including aplague and a lack of wind, prevent the army from sailing. Finally, the prophetCalchas announces that the wrath of the goddess can only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughterIphigenia.
Classical dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter are to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married toAchilles, but Agamemnon does eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeases Artemis and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to thehuman sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such asIphigenia at Aulis, say that Agamemnon is prepared to kill his daughter but that Artemis accepts a deer in her place and whisks her away to Tauris in theCrimean Peninsula. However, this version is widely considered to be the work of an interpolator, and not Euripides himself.[15]Hesiod says she became the goddessHecate.
During the war, but before the events of theIliad, Odysseus contrives a plan to get revenge onPalamedes for threatening his son's life. By forging a letter fromPriam, king of the Trojans, and caching some gold in Palamedes' tent, Odysseus has Palamedes accused of treason and Agamemnon orders him to be stoned to death.[16]
TheIliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. In Book One, following one of theAchaean army's raids,Chryseis, daughter ofChryses, one ofApollo's priests, is taken as a war prize by Agamemnon. Chryses pleads with Agamemnon to free his daughter but meets with little success. Chryses then prays to Apollo for the safe return of his daughter. Apollo responds by unleashing a plague over the Achaean army. The prophetCalchas tells that the plague may be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father. After bitterly berating Calchas for his painful prophecies, which first forced him to sacrifice his daughter and now to return his concubine, Agamemnon reluctantly agrees. However, Agamemnon demands a new prize from the army as compensation and seizes Achilles' prize, the beautiful captiveBriseis. This creates deadly resentment between Achilles and Agamemnon, causing Achilles to withdraw from battle and refuse to fight.
Agamemnon is then visited in a dream by Zeus who tells him to rally his forces and attack the Trojans (in Book Two). After several days of fighting, including duels between Menelaus andParis, and betweenAjax andHector, the Achaeans are pushed back to the fortifications around their ships. In Book Nine, Agamemnon, having realized Achilles's importance in winning the war, sends ambassadors begging for Achilles to return, offering him riches and the hand of his daughter in marriage. Achilles refuses, only being spurred back into action when his companionPatroclus is killed in battle by Hector, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. In Book Nineteen, Agamemnon, reconciled with Achilles, gives him the offered rewards for returning to the war. Achilles sets out to turn back the Trojans and to duel with Hector. After Hector's death, Agamemnon assists Achilles in performing Patroclus' funeral in Book Twenty-three. Agamemnon volunteers for the javelin throwing contest, one of the games being held in Patroclus' honor, but his skill with the javelin is so well known that Achilles awards him the prize without contest.
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. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insultChryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks.[11]
Agamemnon was thecommander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killedAntiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers, according to one source.[17] In theIliad itself, he is shown to slaughter hundreds more in Book Eleven during hisaristeia, loosely translated to "day of glory", which is the most similar to Achilles'aristeia in Book Twenty-one. Even before hisaristeia, Agamemnon is considered to be one of the three best warriors on the Greek side, as proven when Hector challenges any champion of the Greek side to fight him in Book Seven, and Agamemnon (along with Diomedes and Ajax the Greater) is one of the three Hector most wishes to fight out of the nine strongest Greek warriors who volunteer.
According toSophocles'Ajax, after Achilles had fallen in battle, Agamemnon and Menelaus award Achilles' armor toOdysseus. This angers Ajax, who feels he is now the strongest among theAchaean warriors and so deserves the armor. Ajax considers killing them, but is driven to madness byAthena and instead slaughters the herdsmen and cattle that had not yet been divided as spoils of war. He then commits suicide in shame for his actions. As Ajax dies, he curses the sons of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus), along with the entire Achaean army. Agamemnon and Menelaus consider leaving Ajax's body to rot, denying him a proper burial, but are convinced otherwise by Odysseus and Ajax's half-brotherTeucer.[18] After the capture of Troy,Cassandra, the doomed prophetess and daughter ofPriam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war.[11]
The assassination of Agamemnon, an illustration fromStories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church, 1897Orestes slaying Clytemnestra
After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra land inArgolis, or, in another version, are blown off course and land in Aegisthus's country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, has taken Aegisthus, son ofThyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon comes home he is slain by Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story)[19] or by Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given byPindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon is slain in a bath by his wife alone, after being ensnared by a blanket or a net thrown over him to prevent resistance.[20] This is the case inAeschylus'Oresteia.[21]
In Homer's version of the story in theOdyssey, Aegisthus ambushes and kills Agamemnon in a feasting hall under the pretense of holding a feast in honor of Agamemnon's return home from Troy.[22] Clytemnestra also kills Cassandra. Her motivations are her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia (as in theOresteia andIphigenia at Aulis) and her jealousy of Cassandra and other war prizes taken by Agamemnon (as in theOdyssey and works byOvid).[11][23]
Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then rule Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Atreus's crimes against Thyestes (Thyestes then crying out "thus perish all the race ofPleisthenes!",[24] thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). Agamemnon's sonOrestes 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 theErinyes (English: the Furies), winged goddesses who track down wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drive them to insanity.
Agamemnon's family history is rife with misfortune, born from several curses contributing to themiasma around the family. The curse begins with Agamemnon's great-grandfather Tantalus, who is inZeus's favor until he tries to feed his son Pelops to the gods in order to test theiromniscience, as well as stealing someambrosia and nectar. Tantalus is then banished to theunderworld, where he stands in a pool of water that evaporates every time he reaches down to drink, and above him is a fruit tree whose branches are blown just out of reach by the wind whenever he reaches for the fruit.[25] This begins the cursed house of Atreus, and his descendants would face similar or worse fates.[26]
Later, using his relationship with Poseidon, Pelops convinces the god to grant him a chariot so he may beatOenomaus, king of Pisa, in a race, and win the hand of his daughterHippodamia.Myrtilus, who in some accounts helps Pelops win his chariot race, attempts to lie with Pelops's new bride Hippodamia. In anger, Pelops throws Myrtilus off a cliff, but not before Myrtilus curses Pelops and his entire line.[25] Pelops andHippodamia have many children, including Atreus and Thyestes, who are said to have murdered their half-brotherChrysippus. Pelops banishes Atreus and Thyestes to Mycanae, where Atreus becomes king. Thyestes later conspires with Atreus's wife, Aerope, to supplant Atreus, but they are unsuccessful. Atreus then kills Thyestes' son and cooks him into a meal which Thyestes eats, and afterwards Atreus taunts him with the hands and feet of his now dead son. Thyestes, on the advice of an oracle, then has a son with his own daughterPelopia. Pelopia tries toexpose the infant Aegisthus, but he is found by a shepherd and raised in the house of Atreus. When Aegisthus reaches adulthood Thyestes reveals the truth of his birth, and Aegisthus then kills Atreus.[27]
Atreus and Aerope have three children, Agamemnon, Menelaus, andAnaxibia. The continued miasma surrounding the house of Atreus expresses itself in several events throughout their lives. Agamemnon is forced to sacrifice his own daughter, Iphigenia, to appease the gods and allow the Greek forces to sail forTroy. When Agamemnon refuses to returnChryseis to her fatherChryses, he brings plague upon the Greek camp. He is also later killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, who conspires with her new lover Aegisthus in revenge for the death of Iphigenia. Menelaus's wife,Helen of Troy, runs away withParis, ultimately leading to theTrojan War. According to book 4 of theOdyssey, after the war his fleet is scattered by the gods to Egypt andCrete. When Menelaus finally returns home, his marriage with Helen is now strained and they produce no sons.[22] Both Agamemnon and Menelaus are cursed by Ajax for not granting him Achilles's armor as he commits suicide.[18]
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra have three remaining children, Electra, Orestes, and Chrysothemis. After growing to adulthood and being pressured by Electra, Orestes vows to avenge his father Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. After successfully doing so, he wanders the Greek countryside for many years constantly plagued by theErinyes (Furies) for his sins. Finally, with the help ofAthena andApollo he is absolved of his crimes, dispersing the miasma, and the curse on house Atreus comes to an end.[26]
The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numeroustragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being theOresteia of Aeschylus. In the legends of thePeloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and inSparta he was worshipped under the title ofZeus Agamemnon. His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and atAmyclae.
In works of art, there is considerable resemblance between the representations ofZeus, king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. He is generally depicted with asceptre anddiadem, conventional attributes of kings.
Agamemnon's mare is named Aetha. She is also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games ofPatroclus.[32]
In Homer'sOdyssey Agamemnon makes an appearance in the kingdom of Hades after his death. There, the former king meets Odysseus and explains just how he was murdered before he offers Odysseus a warning about the dangers of trusting a woman.[33]
InFrank Herbert'sDune, the House of Atreides trace themselves back to the House of Atreus. At a key point inChildren of Dune, Alia Atreides, in a struggle with her ancestral memories, hears Agamemnon shouting "I, your ancestor Agamemnon, demand audience!"
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