CLYTEMNESTRA
Klytaimnēstra (Κλυταιμνήστρα)
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THE STORY
Her first marriage ended violently: Agamemnon killed Tantalus and their newborn child and took Clytemnestra as his wife. Pausanias' local account remembers the earlier husband but disputes whether his father was Thyestes or Broteas. 1
In Homer, Clytemnestra initially resisted Aegisthus while a minstrel guarded her, then joined him after the singer was removed. Agamemnon's ghost calls her an accomplice in his murder and the direct killer of Cassandra. 2⚖
Apollodorus and Hyginus place Clytemnestra beside Aegisthus as a direct conspirator and killer of Agamemnon. Electra saved Orestes from them, and the grown son returned with Pylades to kill his mother and Aegisthus. 3⚖
Apollodorus places Iphigenia among the daughters born in Agamemnon's household. Pausanias reports an Argive tradition in which Helen bore Iphigenia to Theseus and entrusted the child to Clytemnestra to raise. 4⚖