Agamemnon

The gold mask stares up from the grave shaft with its closed eyes and thin-lipped calm, and for more than a century it has carried a name that does not belong to it. Heinrich Schliemann lifted it from a burial at Mycenae in 1876 and reportedly declared he had gazed upon the face of Agamemnon. The mask predates any plausible Trojan War candidate by at least three hundred years. But the name stuck. That is something Agamemnon does well: he attaches himself to things and does not let go.

He was born into ruin. His great-grandfather Tantalus had butchered his own son Pelops and served him as a stew to the gods, a test of their omniscience that failed in every way a test can fail. The gods restored Pelops to life, minus a shoulder that Demeter had absent-mindedly eaten, which Hephaestus replaced in ivory. From Pelops descended Atreus, Agamemnon’s father, who discovered that his wife Aerope had been sleeping with his twin brother Thyestes. Atreus killed Thyestes’ sons and fed them to their father at a banquet. The house kept score. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus upon his own daughter Pelopia, and Aegisthus murdered Atreus, seized the throne, and drove the young Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus into exile. The boys found shelter in Sparta, in the court of King Tyndareus. They married the king’s daughters: Agamemnon took Clytemnestra, Menelaus took Helen. In some versions, Clytemnestra was already married, and Agamemnon killed her husband and infant son to have her. That detail matters later.

Menelaus eventually helped his brother reclaim Mycenae. Agamemnon extended his power until he was the most formidable king in Greece, ruling from a city of Cyclopean stone walls and a Lion Gate that still stands over the dry Argolid plain. Homer called the place golden. Archaeologists pulled more than fifteen kilograms of gold from its graves. When the Trojan prince Paris took Helen from Sparta, Menelaus invoked the Oath of Tyndareus, the pact that bound Helen’s former suitors to defend her marriage. Agamemnon, the elder brother with the largest fleet, took command. He mustered a hundred ships of his own. The combined armada gathered at the harbour of Aulis. And there it sat.

Artemis held the wind. Agamemnon had killed one of her sacred stags and boasted he was a better hunter than the goddess herself. The price for passage was his eldest daughter, Iphigenia. In some tellings she was lured to Aulis with the promise of a marriage to Achilles. In others, Artemis substituted a deer at the last moment and whisked the girl away to serve as a priestess in distant Tauris. In the version Aeschylus made famous, Agamemnon simply killed her. The wind came. The fleet sailed. Nothing was forgiven.

At Troy, Homer gives Agamemnon a full arming scene in Book 11 of the Iliad, and the detail is extraordinary. He buckles silver-clasped greaves to his shins, then pulls on a corselet given to him by Kinyras, king of Cyprus, a gift of hospitality upon hearing the Greeks would sail for war. The breastplate gleams with ten bands of dark cobalt, twelve of gold, twenty of tin, and three cobalt serpents rear up on each side toward the throat, iridescent as rainbows. His shield bears the face of the Gorgon, flanked by Terror and Rout. His helmet has four bosses and a horsehair crest that nods terribly as he moves. Athena and Hera thunder approval from above.

What follows is his aristeia, his day of supreme glory. Agamemnon drives the Trojans back to their gates, killing in a fury compared to wildfire consuming thick woodland. He spears one man through the chest, slashes another behind the ear. He severs arms and a head and sets it rolling through the dust like a stone. It is not elegant. Zeus himself sends word to Hector: stay clear while the king of Mycenae rages. Only when a spear wound finally pierces the flesh of his arm does Agamemnon leave the field, and Hector advances.

But the war’s decisive wound happened earlier, in a tent, over a woman. When Apollo sent plague through the Greek camp for Agamemnon’s refusal to return the priest’s daughter Chryseis, the seer Calchas named the cause. Agamemnon, humiliated, agreed to give her up but seized Achilles’ war prize, Briseis, as compensation. Achilles withdrew from battle entirely. Men died by the hundreds because two proud men could not yield. Agamemnon was king, and kings do not explain. Achilles was the greatest warrior alive, and warriors do not bend. The stalemate held until Patroclus died wearing Achilles’ armour, and grief burned the quarrel away.

Troy fell. Agamemnon took Cassandra, daughter of King Priam, as his prize and sailed home. Clytemnestra was waiting. She had spent ten years sharpening her hatred and had taken Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, as her lover. In the oldest version, told in the Odyssey, Aegisthus ambushed Agamemnon at a feast. In the version Aeschylus made permanent, Clytemnestra herself drew him a bath after his long voyage, draped a heavy cloth or net over him so he could not fight free, and stabbed him. Cassandra was killed beside him. Clytemnestra walked out to the chorus and defended what she had done: she had avenged her daughter.

The killing did not end. Years later, Agamemnon’s son Orestes returned, urged on by his sister Electra and commanded by Apollo, and murdered both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The Furies pursued him to madness for the crime of matricide, until Athena convened a jury in Athens and cast the deciding vote for his acquittal. The curse of the House of Atreus, five generations deep, finally broke.

Agamemnon commanded the largest fleet and the broadest alliance in Greek myth, and his authority carried the weight of a sceptre handed down from Zeus through Hermes, Pelops, and Atreus. He was a formidable warrior on his own terms. But his power was inseparable from his flaws: the arrogance that insulted Artemis, the cold calculation that sacrificed Iphigenia, the pride that stole Briseis and nearly lost the war. In Sparta, he was worshipped under the title Zeus Agamemnon. Tombs were pointed out in his name at Mycenae and at Amyclae. But in Hades, as Homer tells it, he had nothing left but a warning for Odysseus: do not trust your wife when you come home. Even in death, he could not see past his own story.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Agamemnon in Greek mythology?

Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae and supreme commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. He came from the cursed House of Atreus, ruled the most powerful kingdom in Greece, and was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra upon his return from Troy. His authority carried a divine sceptre passed down from Zeus through Hermes, Pelops, and Atreus.

Why did Agamemnon sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia?

Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia at the harbour of Aulis to appease the goddess Artemis, who had held the wind and prevented the Greek fleet from sailing to Troy. Artemis was angry because Agamemnon had killed one of her sacred stags and boasted he was a better hunter than the goddess herself. In some versions Iphigenia was lured to Aulis with the promise of a marriage to Achilles, while in others Artemis substituted a deer at the last moment and spirited the girl away to Tauris to serve as a priestess.

Who killed Agamemnon?

Agamemnon was killed by his wife Clytemnestra upon his return from Troy, in some versions with help from her lover Aegisthus, son of Thyestes. In the version Aeschylus made famous, Clytemnestra drew Agamemnon a bath after his long voyage, draped a heavy cloth or net over him so he could not fight free, and stabbed him. Cassandra, the Trojan princess he had taken as a war prize, was killed beside him.

What is the Mask of Agamemnon?

The Mask of Agamemnon is a gold funerary mask that Heinrich Schliemann lifted from a burial shaft at Mycenae in 1876 and reportedly declared to be the face of Agamemnon himself. The attribution is false. The mask predates any plausible Trojan War candidate by at least three hundred years, but the name has stuck.

What did Agamemnon do at Troy?

Agamemnon commanded the entire Greek alliance during the ten-year siege of Troy, mustering a hundred ships of his own and leading dozens of allied kingdoms bound by the Oath of Tyndareus. In Book 11 of the Iliad he has his aristeia, a day of supreme glory in which he drives the Trojans back to their gates wearing a cobalt-banded breastplate given to him by Kinyras, king of Cyprus. His refusal to return the priest’s daughter Chryseis brought a plague on the Greek camp, and his seizure of Achilles’ war prize Briseis caused the greatest warrior alive to withdraw from battle.

Related Entries

Achilles, Hector, Helen, Odysseus (Ulysses), Pelops, Artemis, Apollo, Athena, Erinyes (Furies), Zeus, Hera, Hermes, Clytemnestra