Agamemnon
Agamemnon | |
---|---|
King of Mycenae Commander of the Achaeans | |
Personal information | |
Siblings | Menelaus |
Consort | Clytemnestra |
Offspring | Orestes, Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis, Iphianassa, Chryses |
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (/æɡəˈmɛmnɒn/; Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων Agamémnōn) was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Achaeans during the Trojan War. He was the son (or grandson) of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Iphigenia, Iphianassa, Electra, Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis.[1] Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area.[2] Agamemnon was killed upon his return from Troy by Clytemnestra, or in an older version of the story, by Clytemnestra's lover Aegisthus.
Etymology
His name in Greek, Ἀγαμέμνων, means "very steadfast", "unbowed" or "resolute".[3] The word comes from *Ἀγαμέδμων (*Agamédmōn) from ἄγαν, "very much" and μέδομαι, "think on".[4]
Description
In the account of Dares the Phrygian, Agamemnon was described as "...blond, large, and powerful. He was eloquent, wise, and noble, a man richly endowed."[5]
Ancestry and early life
Agamemnon was a descendant of
Agamemnon's father, Atreus, murdered the sons of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to Thyestes after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus 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 with Tyndareus, King of Sparta.[10]
In Sparta, Agamemnon and Menelaus respectively married Tyndareus' daughters
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.[10]
Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished by
Trojan War
Sailing for Troy
Agamemnon gathers the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. In order to recruit
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 to
During the war, but before the events of the Iliad, Odysseus contrives a plan to get revenge on Palamedes for threatening his son’s life. By forging a letter from Priam, 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.[15]
The Iliad
The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. In Book One, following one of the
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 and Paris, and between Ajax and Hector, 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 Patroclus 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 insult
Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers, according to one source.[16] In the Iliad itself, he is shown to slaughter hundreds more in Book Eleven during his aristea, loosely translated to "day of glory", which is the most similar to Achilles' aristea in Book Twenty-one. Even before his aristea, 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.
End of the war
According to Sophocles's Ajax, after Achilles had fallen in battle, Agamemnon and Menelaus award Achilles' armor to Odysseus. This angers Ajax, who feels he is now the strongest among the Achaean warriors and so deserves the armor. Ajax considers killing them, but is driven to madness by Athena 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-brother Teucer.[17] 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.[10]
Return to Greece and death
After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra land in Argolis, or, in another version, are blown off course and land in Aegisthus's country. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, has taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover. When Agamemnon comes home he is slain by Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story)[18] or by Clytemnestra. According to the accounts given by Pindar 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.[19]
In Homer's version of the story in the Odyssey, 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.[20] Clytemnestra also kills Cassandra. Her motivations are her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia (as in the Oresteia and Iphigenia at Aulis) and her jealousy of Cassandra and other war prizes taken by Agamemnon (as in the Odyssey and works by Ovid).[10][21]
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 of Pleisthenes!",[22] thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). 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 Erinyes (English: the Furies), winged goddesses who track down wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drive them to insanity.
The Curse of the House of Atreus
Agamemnon's family history is rife with misfortune, born from several curses contributing to the
Later, using his relationship with Poseidon, Pelops convinces the god to grant him a chariot so he may beat
Atreus and Aerope have three children, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia. 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 for Troy. When Agamemnon refuses to return Chryseis to her father Chryses, 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 with Paris, ultimately leading to the Trojan War. According to book 4 of the Odyssey, after the war his fleet is scattered by the gods to Egypt and Crete. When Menelaus finally returns home, his marriage with Helen is now strained and they produce no sons.[20] Both Agamemnon and Menelaus are cursed by Ajax for not granting him Achilles's armor as he commits suicide.[17]
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 the Erinyes (Furies) for his sins. 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.[24]
Other stories
The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous
In works of art, there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus, king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem, conventional attributes of kings.
Agamemnon's mare is named Aetha. She is also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus.[30]
In Homer's Odyssey 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.[31]
Agamemnon is a character in William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War.
In Frank Herbert's Dune, the House of Atreides trace themselves back to the House of Atreus. At a key point in Children of Dune, Alia Atreides, in a struggle with her ancestral memories, hears Agamemnon shouting "I, your ancestor Agamemnon, demand audience!"
In media and art
Visual arts
General works
- The Mask of Agamemnon, discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1876, on display at National Archeological Museum of Athens, Athens
- The Tomb of Agamemnon, by Louis Desprez, 1787, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1817, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, Orléans
- Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, 1868, on display at Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston upon Hull
- Agamemnon Killing Odios, anonymous, 1545, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
With Iphigenia
- Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Arnold Houbraken, 1690–1700, on display at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
- The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Charles de la Fosse, 1680, on display at the Palace of Versailles, Versailles
- The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Gaetano Gandolfi, 1789, on display at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Sacrificio di Ifigenia, by Pietro Testa, 1640
- The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1757, on display at the Villa Varmarana, Vicenza
- Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Jan Steen, 1671, on display at the Leiden Collection, New York
- The Sacrifice of Iphigenia, by Sebastian Bourdon, 1653, on display at the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, Orléans
With Achilles
- The Quarrel Between Agamemnon and Achilles, by Giovanni Battista Gaulli, 1695, on display at the Museé de l’Oise, Beauvais
- The Anger of Achilles, by Jacques-Louis David, 1819, on display at Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth
- The Wrath of Achilles, by Michel-Martin Drolling, 1810, on display at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris
- Quarrel of Achilles and Agamemnon, by William Page, on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC
Portrayal in film and television
- The 1924 film Helena by Karl Wüstenhagen
- The 1956 film Helen of Troy by Robert Douglas
- The 1961 film The Trojan Horse by Nerio Bernardi
- The 1962 film The Fury of Achilles by Mario Petri
- The 1962 film Electra by Theodoros Dimitriou
- The 1968 TV miniseries The Odyssey by Rolf Boysen
- The 1977 film Iphigenia by Kostas Kazakos
- The 1981 film Time Bandits by Sean Connery
- The 1994 TV series “Babylon 5” John Sheridan’s previous command is the EAS Agamemnon.
- The 1997 TV miniseries The Odyssey by Yorgo Voyagis
- The 2003 TV miniseries Helen of Troy by Rufus Sewell
- The 2004 film Troy by Brian Cox
- The 2018 TV miniseries Troy: Fall of a City by Johnny Harris
See also
- HMS Agamemnon
- National Archaeological Museum of Athens
Citations
- ^ Homer, Iliad 9.145.
- ISBN 0-19-515669-2.
- ISBN 9780241983386.
- ^ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 8.
- ^ Dares Phrygius, History of the Fall of Troy 13
- ^ For a discussion of the house of Tantalus see Gantz, pp. 531–556. For Agamemnon's genealogy see, Grimal, p. 526, Table 2, and p. 534, Table 13.
- Tzetzes' Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (citing "Homer" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137c Most). They are also the sons of Atreus, in the Iliad and Odyssey, see for example Iliad 11.131 Archived 2021-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Odyssey 4.462, although Aerope is not mentioned (see Gantz, p. 522). See also Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 4–5 Archived 2021-06-07 at the Wayback Machine, (Atreus as father, no mention of mother); Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 138 Most [= fr. 195 MW], and Sophocles, Ajax 1295–1297 Archived 2021-05-02 at the Wayback Machine(Aerope as mother, no mention of father).
- Tzetzes, Exegesis in Iliadem 1.122 (citing "Hesiod, Aeschylus, and some others" = Hesiod Catalogue of Women fr. 137b Most). For Eriphyle see Gantz, p. 553 (citing Scholia on Euripides Orestes4).
- .
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Euripides. "Iphigenia in Aulis, lines 1148-1152". Poetry in Translation.
- ^ Tzetzes, John. "Chiliades 1.18 line 463-465". Classical Texts Library.
- ^ "APOLLODORUS, THE LIBRARY EPITOME - Theoi Classical Texts Library". www.theoi.com. Archived from the original on 2021-05-18. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ Richard Rutherford, in John Davie (tr.), Euripides: The Bacchae and Other Plays, London, Penguin, 2005, pp. 174, 326–7.
- ^ "Ovid, Metamorphoses XII-XV". www.gutenberg.org. Archived from the original on 2022-03-03. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- .
- ^ a b "Sophocles - The Seven Plays". www.gutenberg.org. Archived from the original on 2021-06-05. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- ^ Homer, Odyssey 3:266
- .
- ^ ISBN 9781593080099.
- ^ Haynes, Natalie (March 28, 2022). "Is Clytemnestra an Archetypically Bad Wife or a Heroically Avenging Mother?". Literary Hub. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
- ^ Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 1602.
- ^ a b "Pindar, Olympian, Olympian 1 For Hieron of Syracuse Single Horse Race 476 B. C." www.perseus.tufts.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-02-27. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ a b "The Project Gutenberg eBook of The House of Atreus by Aeschylus". www.gutenberg.org. Archived from the original on 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2021-05-18.
- ^ "Apollodorus, Epitome, book E, chapter 2". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-06-05. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
- Perseus Project. Archivedfrom the original on 16 October 2012. Retrieved 16 September 2011.
- ^ Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae ('The Learned Banqueters') 13.603d-e.
- ^ Clement of Alexandria, Protrepticus II.38.2
- ^ Butler, Harold Edgeworth & Barber, Eric Arthur, eds. (1933) The Elegies of Propertius. Oxford: Clarendon Press; p. 277
- ^ Pausanias, 5.8.3 Archived 2022-03-19 at the Wayback Machine; Plutarch, Moralia. How the Young Man Should Study Poetry 12.
- ^ Homer, Odyssey 11.385–465 Archived 2022-03-19 at the Wayback Machine.
General references
Secondary sources
- Aeschylus, Agamemnon in Aeschylus, with an English translation by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. in two volumes, Vol 2, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1926, Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F.B.A., F.R.S. in 2 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1921. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters, Volume VI: Books 12-13.594b, edited and translated by S. Douglas Olson, .
- Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008a), Euripides Fragments: Aegeus–Meleanger, .
- Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp (2008b), Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments, .
- Dictys Cretensis, The Trojan War. The Chronicles of Dictys of Crete and Dares the Phrygian, translated by R. M. Frazer (Jr.). Indiana University Press. 1966.
- Euripides, Helen, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 2. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris, translated by Robert Potter in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 2. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Euripides, Orestes, translated by E. P. Coleridge in The Complete Greek Drama, edited by Whitney J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr. Volume 1. New York. Random House. 1938. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3(Vol. 2).
- Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell, 1996. ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1.
- Hard, Robin, The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
- Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Homer, The Odyssey with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, PH.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Fabulae, in The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1960. Online version at ToposText.
- .
- Parada, Carlos, Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology, Jonsered, Paul Åströms Förlag, 1993. ISBN 978-91-7081-062-6.
- Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., and H.A. Ormerod, M.A., in 4 Volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1918. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Sophocles, The Ajax of Sophocles. Edited with introduction and notes by Sir Richard Jebb, Sir Richard Jebb. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. 1893 Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Agamemnon". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 363–364. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Primary sources
- Homer, Iliad
- Electra
- Electra
- Seneca, Agamemnon
- Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers
- Homer, Odyssey I, 28–31; XI, 385–464
- Agamemnon
- Apollodorus, Epitome, II, 15 – III, 22; VI, 23