CLYTEMNESTRA

Klytaimnēstra (Κλυταιμνήστρα)

mortalMycenaean queenship · the murder of Agamemnon · the vengeance of Orestes
told after
 

hover to halt the heavens · click a star to travel

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

BEYOND THE POETS

How the centuries since have seen Clytemnestra — art, artifacts and echoes.

ENTER →