AGAMEMNON  , one of the most distinguished of the

Greek heroes, was the son of Atreus (king of Mycenae) and Aerope, grandson of Pelops, great-grandson of Tantalus and brother of Menelaus . Another account makes him the son of Pleisthenes (the son or father of Atreus), who is said to have been Aerope's first husband . Atreus was murdered by Aegisthus (q.v.), who took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with his father Thyestes . During this period Agamemnon and Menelaus took refuge with Tyndareus, king of Sparta, whose daughters Clytaemnestra (more correctly Clytaemestra) and Helen they respectively married . By Clytaemnestra, Agamemnon had three daughters, Iphigeneia (Iphianassa), Electra (Laodice), Chrysothemis, and a son, Orestes . Menelaus succeededTyndareus, and Agamemnon,with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes, and recovered his father's kingdom . He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece . When Paris (Alexander), son of Priam, had carried off his brother's wife, he went round to the princes of the country and called upon them to unite in a war of revenge against the Trojans . He himself furnished loo ships, and was chosen commander-inchief of the combined forces . The fleet, numbering 1200 ships, assembled at the port of Aulis in Boeotia . But Agamemnon had offended the goddess Artemis by slaying a hind sacred to her, and boasting himself a better hunter . The army was visited by a plague, and the fleet was prevented from sailing by the total absence of wind .

Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be appeased by the sacrifice of Iphigeneia (q.v.) . The fleet then set sail . Little is heard of Agamemnon until his quarrel with Achilles (q.v.) . After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, fell to his lot in the distribution of the prizes of war . On his return, after a stormy voyage, he landed in Argolis . His kinsman, Aegisthus, who in the interval had seduced his wife Clytaemnestra, invited him to a banquet at which he was treacherously slain, Cassandra also being put to death by Clytaemnestra . According to the account given by Pindar and the tragedians, Agamemnon was slain by his wife alone in a bath, a piece of cloth or a net having first been thrown over him to prevent resistance . Her wrath at the sacrifice of Iphigeneia, and her jealousy of Cassandra, are said to have been the motives of her crime . The murder of Agamemnon was avenged by his son Orestes (q.v.) . Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon is a dignified representative of kingly authority . As commander-in-chief, he summons the princes to the council and leads the army in battle . He takes the field himself, and performs many heroic deeds until he is wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent .

His chief

fault is his overweening haughtiness, due to an over-exalted opinion of his position, which leads him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks . But his family had been marked out for misfortune from the outset . His kingly office had come to him from Pelops through the blood-stained hands of Atreus and Thyestes, and had brought with it a certain fatality which explained the hostile destiny which pursued him . The fortunes of Agamemnon have formed the subject of numerous tragedies, ancient and modern, the most famous being the Oresteia of Aeschylus . In the legends of Peloponnesus, Agamemnon was regarded as the highest type of a powerful monarch, and in Sparta he was worshipped under the title of Zeus Agamemnon . His tomb was pointed out among the ruins of Mycenae and at Amyclae . 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 characterized by the sceptre and diadem, the usual attributes of kings . See articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyclopadie and Roscher's Lexikon der MMthologie .