During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and fifteen other Trojan soldiers, according to one source. Agamemnon goes further by bringing in Briseis, claiming her as his own spoil of war, enraging Achilles. When the Trojan prince Paris carried off Helen, wife of his brother Menelaus, Agamemnon called for revenge and led the Greek forces to victory during the Trojan War. Another account makes him the son of Pleisthenes (the son or father of Atreus), who is said to have been Aerope's first husband. Various stories tell different versions of the exact way Agamemnon died, but the essence is that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered him in cold blood, out of vengeance for Iphigenia's death and other slights he had perpetrated against them. Through his actions and words in The Iliad , we can see that Agamemnon is not a great king at all. It surely is not possible to understand Agamemnon’s life without having knowledge of his tumultuous past. Agamemnon refuses, and Apollo sends a plague amongst the Greeks. (1933), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Agamemnon&oldid=1002611963, Articles containing Ancient Greek (to 1453)-language text, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2020, Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica with Wikisource reference, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with multiple identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 25 January 2021, at 06:57. After Paris is injured, Hector kills Menelaus rather than let Menelaus kill his brother. How Did the Greek King Agamemnon Die? FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled Agamemnon's kingdom for a time, Aegisthus claiming his right of revenge for Atreus's crimes against Thyestes (Thyestes then crying out "So perish all the race of Pleisthenes! Agamemnon, the Greek King of the Trojan War, Biography of Helen of Troy, Cause of the Trojan War, Non-Canonical Retelling of the Tale of Troy. 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. Agamemnon has Odysseus, King of Ithaca, persuade Achilles to join them. ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/how-did-the-greek-king-agamemnon-die-111792. After the death of some famous heroes, including Achilles, the Trojans fell victim to a ruse in which they accepted a large, hollow horse as a gift, only to find that Achean Greek warriors had hidden inside, emerging at night to vanquish the Trojans. Yet despite that Agamemnon is king and has enormous power and social position, he is not necessarily the best qualified for the role. It comes in handy in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. He was later avenged by his son Orestes. He is the cruel and ruthless supreme king of Mycenae. In the Underworld, he tells us why we should really try to marry a woman who isn't going to betray and murder us: So there is nothing more deadly or more vile than a woman … His name in Greek, Ἀγαμέμνων, means "very steadfast", "unbowed". In the Warner Bros. movie "Troy," Menelaus is the feeble, old husband of Helen, the ruler of Sparta, and the brother of Agamemnon, head king of all the Greeks. It's stunning architecture and great size leads archeologist to believe that this is the tomb of the king Agamemnon. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis. The Trojan War is the legendary (and almost certainly mythical) conflict in which Agamemnon laid siege to Troy in an effort to retrieve Helen, his sister-in-law after she had been taken to Troy by Paris. An analysis of Aeschylus's 'Agamemnon' from the Orestia trilogy which examines the multiple causes of his death. In old versions of the story, on returning from Troy, Agamemnon is murdered by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. The Trojan Princess is silent, and the Queen leaves her in frustration. AGAMEMNON, TRANSLATED BY FRANK JUSTUS MILLER DRAMATIS PERSONAE. Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of "kingly authority". Her jealousy of Cassandra, and her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigenia and at Agamemnon's having gone to war over Helen of Troy, are said to have been the motives for her crime. 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. [9] 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. Agamemnon was one of two sons of Atreus, the king of Mycenae. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece.[5]. As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. [5], 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. During this period, Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. [1] Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. There, the former king met Odysseus and explained just how he was murdered before he offered Odysseus a warning about the dangers of trusting a woman.[18]. [10] Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. If you grant them, no more of your people need die. (Agamemnon:) This is the word the Achaians have spoken often against me. Second, Troy must submit to my command, to … He stole an attractive slave called Briseis, one of the spoils of war, from Achilles.[7]. (Aegisthus was the son of Agamemnon's uncle, Thyestes, and Thyestes's daughter, Pelopia. Agamemnon's family history had been tarnished by murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by his ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. According to the accounts given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain in a bath by his wife alone, after being ensnared by a blanket or a net thrown over him to prevent resistance. First, you must give Helen back to my brother. The Iliad tells the story about the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. How does Agamemnon return from the Trojan war? Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being the Oresteia of Aeschylus. [12] He buried him, honored with a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis. Agamemnon is, after all, the king and their leader. Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was killed (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey 11.409–11) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. (2020, August 27). There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath: in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis' equal in hunting. The mythical king Agamemnon died upon his return from the Trojan War at the hands of his bitter, vengeful wife, Clymenestra and her lover, Aegisthus. Chryses pleaded with Agamemnon to free his daughter but was met with little success. Finding out about Queen Aerope’s affair with the two s… With a lot of loot and the Trojan princess Cassandra as his slave in tow. )Â, Clytemnestra had installed herself up as the supreme queen while Agamemnon was away, but her bitterness increased when he returned from the war not repentant, but in the company of another woman, a concubine—a concubine, the Trojan prophetess-princess—as well as (according to some sources) his children borne by Cassandra.Â. In the legend, he is the King of Mycenae and the leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War. Achilles stays his blade, to the surprise of Agamemnon. When Agamemnon came home he was slain by Aegisthus (in the oldest versions of the story)[8] or by Clytemnestra. Agamemnon, in Greek legend, king of Mycenae or Argos. Paris seeks Menelaus for hand-to-hand combat for the hand of Helen. Odysseus encounters Agamemnon's spirit in Hades. Then Cassandra begins to speak, uttering incoherent prophecies about a curse on the house of Agamemnon. Angry at the dishonour of having his plunder and glory taken away (and, as he says later, because he loves Briseis), with the urging of his mother Thetis, Achilles refuses to fight or lead his troops alongside the other Greek forces. who in assembly caught my heart in savage delusion. Bitterly vengeful toward Agamemnon, Clytemnestra (Helen's half-sister), had taken Agamemnon's cousin Aegisthus as her lover while her husband was away fighting the Trojan war. In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or she and Aegisthus act together, killing Agamemnon in … Agamemnon, having realized Achilles's importance in winning the war against the Trojan Army, sent ambassadors begging for Achilles to return, offering him riches and the hand of his daughter in marriage, but Achilles refused, only being spurred back into action when Patroclus was killed in battle by Hector, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. ThoughtCo. [13] This episode is also found in Clement of Alexandria,[14] in Stephen of Byzantium (Kopai and Argunnos), and in Propertius, III with minor variations.[15]. There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath: in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis' equal in hunting. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-did-the-greek-king-agamemnon-die-111792 (accessed February 19, 2021). Achilles vows that Agamemnon will one day fall under his sword. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Yes, King Agamemnon does have fully refundable rooms available to book on our site, which can be cancelled up to a few days before check-in. download word file, 5 … Athenaeus tells a tale of how Agamemnon mourned the loss of his friend or lover Argynnus, when he drowned in the Cephisus river. Agamemnon’s father, King Atreus had a twin; Thyestes. However, as compensation for his lost prize, Agamemnon demanded a new prize. In Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon, there are three major reasons why Agamemnon, after returning from Troy, is murdered at the hands of Clytaemnestra. Agamemnon is a king of the Achaeans, but that does not make him worthy of the title. [6] But in the Iliad itself, he's shown to slaughter hundreds more in Book 11 during his aristea loosely translated to "day of glory" which is the most similar to Achilles' aristea in Book 21 (they both are compared to lions and destructive fires in battle, their hands are described as "splattered with gore" and "invincible," the Trojans flee to the walls, they both are appealed to by one of their victims, they are both avoided by Hector, they both get wounded in the arm or hand, and they both kill the one who wounded them). There is no historical verification of either a Mycenaen king name Agamemnon, nor a Trojan Was as described by Homer, but some historians find tantalizing archeological evidence that they may be based in early Greek history. Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, fled to the city-state of Sparta, where they found refuge and protection from King Tyndareos. In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (/æɡəˈmɛmnɒn/; Greek: Ἀγαμέμνων Agamémnōn) was a king of Mycenae, the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike (Λαοδίκη), Orestes and Chrysothemis. Hittite sources mention AkagamunaÅ¡, ruler of Ahhiyawa (land of Achaeans) in the 14th century BCE.This is a possible prototype of the Agamemnon of mythology. How does Agamemnon die according to Nestor? These three reasons happen to be Agamemnon’s sacrifice of their daughter Iphigeneia, Clytaemnestra’s love for Aegisthus, and the curse upon the House of Atreus. [2] When Menelaus's wife, Helen, was taken to Troy by Paris, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War. There they respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. Even before his aristea, Agamemnon was 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 7, and Agamemnon (along with Diomedes and Ajax the Greater) is one of the three most wished for to face him out of the nine strongest Greek warriors who volunteered. For other uses, see, Butler, Harold Edgeworth & Barber, Eric Arthur, eds. This is tale is the source  of the term Trojan Horse, used to describe any supposed gift that contains the seeds of disaster, as well as the old saying, "Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts. She has been featured by NPR and National Geographic for her ancient history expertise. While Agamemnon was still a youth, Atreus was murdered by his brother. He threatens to fight for her but she angrily interjects, saying that no one else will die for her. In old versions of the story, the scene of the murder, when it is specified, is usually the house of Aegisthus, who has not taken up residence in Agamemnon's palace, and it involves an ambush and the deaths of Agamemnon's followers as well (or it seems to be an ancestral home of both Agamemnon and Aegisthus since Agamemnon's wife is stated to be there as well and Agamemnon was said to have wept and kissed the land of his birth). Agamemnon is a character in William Shakespeare's play Troilus and Cressida, set during the Trojan War. After delivering this prophecy, Cassandra declares that she is resigned to die. Hector of Troy: Legendary Hero of the Trojan War, Profile of the Greek Hero Achilles of the Trojan War, M.A., Linguistics, University of Minnesota. Agamemnon was the most powerful king in all of Greece, and to him all kings owed obligations. His unfaithful wife Klytaimestra (Clytemnestra) teamed up with her lover Aigisthos to kill him when he came back from fighting the Trojan War. "How Did the Greek King Agamemnon Die?" Gill is a Latinist, writer, and teacher of ancient history and Latin. King Agamemnon died almost immediately after he returned to Sparta from the Trojan War. Agamemnon is a Greek king and Menelaos' brother. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. How does Odysseus know Agamemnon? and found fault with me in it, yet I am not responsible. Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War of Homer's Illiad. As Homer recounts in the "Odyssey," when Odysseus saw Agamemnon in the underworld, the dead king complained, "Brought low by Aegisthus’ sword I tried to lift my arms in dying, but bitch that she was my wife turned away, and though I was going to Hades's Halls she disdained even to close my eyelids or my mouth." The word comes from *Ἀγαμέδμων from ἄγαν, "very much" and μέδομαι, "think on". In some later versions Clytemnestra helps him or does the killing herself in his own home. After learning from the Prophet Calchas that the plague could be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father, Agamemnon reluctantly agreed (but first berated Calchas for previously forcing Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia) and released his prize. Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was killed (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey 11.409–11) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. His wife, Clytemnestra, was still justifiably furious that he had sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, in order to get fair sailing winds to sail to Troy. Eventually, a son will emerge to kill the murderess and avenge his father's death. but Zeus is, and Destiny, and Erinys the mist-walking. 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. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, upon his return from the war. That claim is further proven by the fact that Agamemnon was the only major warrior on either side never to need the gods' direct intervention to increase his strength or give him any unfair advantages in battle and yet he still caused incredible destruction almost on the scale of Achilles[citation needed]. Agamemnon : I have two wishes. Achilles, who strongly dislikes Agamemnon, eventually decides to go after his mother Thetis tells him that even though he will die, he will be forever glorified. Even before he was born, his family members were fighting against one another. GHOST OF THYESTES, returned to earth to urge on his son to the vengeance which he was born to accomplish. He was portrayed by Brian Cox, who also played Hannibal Lecter in the 1986 film Manhunter, Hermann Goering in the 2000 film Nuremberg, Ward Abbott in the 2002 film The Bourne Identity, and … Following one of the Achaean Army's raids, Chryseis, daughter of Chryses, one of Apollo's priests, was taken as a war prize by Agamemnon. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and commander-in-chief of the Achaean army, resembles Achilles in some respects. Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, say that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter, but that Artemis accepted a deer in her place, and whisked her away to Tauris in the Crimean Peninsula. Though not nearly as strong, he has a similarly hot temper and prideful streak. This article is about a character in Greek mythology. Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. And after they reconciled, even Achilles admits in Book 23 that Agamemnon is "the best in strength and in throwing the spear." Menelaus, in Greek mythology, king of Sparta and younger son of Atreus, king of Mycenae; the abduction of his wife, Helen, led to the Trojan War.During the war Menelaus served under his elder brother Agamemnon, the commander in chief of the Greek forces.When Phrontis, one of his crewmen, was killed, Menelaus delayed his voyage until the man had been buried, thus … Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/how-did-the-greek-king-agamemnon-die-111792. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. [3] In some later versions Clytemnestra herself does the killing, or she and Aegisthus act together, killing Agamemnon in his own home. "  Yet another oft-used term to come out of this legend is "face that launched a thousand ships," which is a description used for Helen, and now sometimes used for any beautiful woman for which men will perform superhuman feats.Â. Clytemnestra throws a net over him while Agamemnon is in the bath and hacks him to death with an axe. [5], After a stormy voyage, Agamemnon and Cassandra landed in Argolis, or, in another version, were blown off course and landed in Aegisthus' country. Gill, N.S. Upon Agamemnon's return from Troy, he was killed (according to the oldest surviving account, Odyssey 11.409–11) by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. Preparing to depart from Aulis, a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis. [4], 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. Aegisthus murdered Atreus, restored Thyestes to the throne and took possession of the throne of Mycenae and jointly ruled with his father. Why does Agamemnon die? King Agamemnon is a mythological character from Greek legend, most famously appearing in Homer's "The Illiad," but also found in other source material from Greek mythology. His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae. Just make sure to check this property's cancellation policy for the exact terms and conditions. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, demonized in later Greek tragedy, ruled Mycenae for a time after dispatching with Agamemnon and Cassandra, but when her son by Agamemnon, Orestes, returned to Mycenae, he murdered them both, as beautifully told in Euripides's "Oresteia.". AEGISTHUS, son of Thyestes by an incestuous union with his daughter; … [5]. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Chryses then prayed to Apollo for the safe return of his daughter, which Apollo responded to by unleashing a plague over the Achaean Army. Meanwhile Menelaus appealed to his brother Agamemnon, king of Argive Mycenae, to help rescue his wife. Where Does the Phrase "Beware of Greeks Bearing Gifts" Come From? On the other hand, Clytemnestra, a character in Agamemnon, is the daughter of a king and a Greek leader. In response to being deprived of Briseis, Achilles withdrew from battle and put the Greek armies at risk of losing the war. AGAMEMNON, king of Argos, and leader of all the Greeks in their war against Troy. The inquiry is in the quote above from Odysseus. Agamemnon - Former king of Mycenae, brother of Menelaus, and commander of the Achaean forces at Troy. Aegisthus killed him after seducing his wife, Queen Clytemnestra, while he was gone; Aegisthus had exiled the bard who was meant to be protecting her; Menelaeus witnessed this when he arrived home. [16][17], In Homer's Odyssey Agamemnon made an appearance in the kingdom of Hades after his death. Old Nestor frequently advises Agamemnon because Agamemnon needs counsel. After explaining this, she prophecies that she and Agamemnon will die at the hands of a woman, "a woman-lioness, who goes to bed / with the wolf" (1258-59). N.S. Preparing to depart from Aulis, a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis. When Menelaus's wife, Helen, was taken to Troy by Paris, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War. The king gave his daughters to the brothers as wives. "How Did the Greek King Agamemnon Die?" Hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate. On his return home he was murdered by his wife and her lover. He is generally depicted with a sceptre and diadem, conventional attributes of kings. Agamemnon's Background. The manner of Agamemnon’s death differs between sources, some say the act was undertaken by Aegisthus, some say by Clytemnestra, and some say by both; with the act undertaken as the returning king made a sacrifice, ate a banquet or took a bath. ς, 30, a hapax) attached to his son Orestes, the hero of the Oresteia, here remembered by Zeus as the killer of Aigisthos. She was also one of two horses driven by Menelaus at the funeral games of Patroclus. Gill, N.S. When Odysseus sees Agamemnon in Hades, he asks how Agamemnon died, expecting him to say from war or an act of Poseidon. In Sophocles’ chef-d’oeuvre, Oedipus is an effective leader of Thebes, ambitious, development oriented and courageous, to mention a few. In works of art, there is considerable resemblance between the representations of Zeus, king of the gods, and Agamemnon, king of men. Essay by vegas_sexbomb, High School, 12th grade, A+, January 2004 . Misfortunes… Agamemnon is the main antagonist of the 2004 epic historical war drama film Troy, which is loosely based on The IIlad. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, Pelopia, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Agamemnon's son Orestes later avenged 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 tracked down wrongdoers with their hounds' noses and drove them to insanity. In the legends of the Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamemnon. ",[11] thus explaining Aegisthus' action as justified by his father's curse). Classical dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter was to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. In addition to The Illiad, Agamemnon appears a second time in.... See full answer below. on that day I … In the most famous story, Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus, came home to a very unhappy household in his kingdom of Mycenae after the Trojan War. Agamemnon's mare was named Aetha. According to the story, Thyestes wanted everything Atreus had and had an affair with Aerope, Atreus’ wife. Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy. Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. Gill, N.S. Based on a reading of the play in translation. Clytemnestra's vengefulness saw no bounds. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus also slaughtered Cassandra. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, had taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as a lover.

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