Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Aegisthus.
The gallery
Clytemnestra and Agamemnon
Pierre-Narcisse Guérin, 1817
Guérin's Louvre night-scene puts Aegisthus in the shadows: the usurper lover who urges Clytemnestra's dagger over the sleeping Agamemnon. The canvas catches the Oresteia's accomplice at the hinge of the murder — the man who shares the bed and the throne he did not win in war. Oil on canvas, Musée du Louvre, Paris.
The Murder of Aegisthus (Louvre K 320)
Wind Group, c. 340–330 BC
This Campanian red-figure hydria stages the end Aegisthus earned: Orestes and Pylades cut him down as he sits on a throne that was never his. The Wind Group vase freezes the Libation Bearers' revenge — the paramour king killed where he ruled. Musée du Louvre, Paris.
Sarcophagus with the Myth of Orestes
Unknown (Roman sculptor), 2nd century AD
A Roman marble sarcophagus compresses the Oresteia into a continuous frieze — including the killing of Aegisthus beside Clytemnestra as the cycle of blood closes on the usurper. Aegisthus appears as the palace lover whose death is the first payment Orestes exacts. Marble relief.
Sarcophagus of Orestes
Unknown (Roman sculptor), c. AD 100–125
Another Roman Oresteia sarcophagus opens with the double murder in the Argive house: Aegisthus and Clytemnestra fall together before the Furies take up the chase. The frieze makes the usurper's death the first act of the cycle that will hunt Orestes to Delphi. Cleveland Museum of Art.