The Story of Agamemnon

King Agamemnon was a great king who ruled over the kingdom of Mycenae. His father, Atreus, had
two sons. Atreus was murdered by his own brother. Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, ran away
to the city-state of Sparta. The king of Sparta took them in and they were trained by Spartan warriors.
The king of Sparta at that time was Tyndareos. He gave Menelaus and Agamemnon his two of his
daughters as a gift. The daughter that he gave to Agamemnon was Clytemnestra. Clytemnestra was
actually already married to Tantalus, so Agamemnon killed Tantalus in order to marry her. Menelaus
took her sister, Helen for his wife. She was only a young teenage girl at the time. According to legend,
Helen was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Agamemnon went back to his home in Mycenae and murdered his uncle in order to become the new
king. His wife, Clytemnestra had three daughters and one son. His daughters were Chrysothemis,
Electra and Iphigenia, and his son was Orestes. Menelaus became the king of Sparta when his father-in-
law died.

The Trojan War

Meanwhile, the great city of Troy (unknown location) was the envy of all of Greece. The king of Troy
was Priam, a great a kind king. His youngest son, Paris, went to visit Menelaus in Sparta and was
treated as an important guest in Sparta. While he was there, he met the legendary beautiful Helen and
fell in love with her. When he left Sparta, he stole her away on his ship before Menelaus discovered.
Because Helen was so beautiful, all the Greek rulers had sworn to fight for her. Menelaus insisted that
they attack Troy and rescue Helen and return her to Sparta. His brother, Agamemnon was the leader of
the Greek army that sailed to attack Troy.
The large fleet of Greek ships set out for Troy, but because Agamemnon had offended the goddess
Artemis, the Greek ships had no wind with which to sail. Agamemnon agreed to sacrifice his daughter,
Iphigenia, in order to please the gods again. The Greeks and Trojans fought a ten year battle. The last
year of the battle is the story told in Homer's Iliad.
The Trojans worshipped Apollo, the sun god. Apollo was the son of Zeus and the twin brother of
Artemis. He was also the god of music. In one battle, Agamemnon took a female prisoner that was the
daughter of one of Apollo's priests. The priest was Chryses and his daughter stolen by Apollo was
Chryseis. Chryses begged Agamemnon to return his daughter, but the Greek king refused and showed
no mercy. Apollo was angered and sent a plague against the Greeks (Apollo was also the god of
plagues).
The Greek fleet had sailed with their great hero and warrior, Achilles. Achilles had been dipped in the
river Styx at birth and it was impossible to harm him. His mother, however, had held him by the heel
while dipping him and he had one vulnerable spot on his heel. Achilles had sailed to fight with
Agamemnon, but the two did not like each other. Achilles demanded that Agamemnon give back the
girl, Chryseis. Agamemnon did not want to, but finally said he would do this only if Achilles gave back
the slave girl he had taken. Her name was Briseis and Achilles had grown attached to her and wanted to
keep her. Achilles became furious at Agamemnon and refused to fight for the Greeks any more.
Without Achilles, the Greeks began to lose the war.
Achilles returned to the battle only after learning of the death of his close friend, Patroclus. When he
rejoined the Greek forces, the tide of battle turned. The Greeks drove off the Trojans, killed the great
Trojan warrior Hector, and went on to defeat the people of Troy and destroy their city. After the war,
Agamemnon took the Trojan princess Cassandra back home as a prize. Homer's epic poem the Odyssey
tells the story of Agamemnon's return to Mycenae.
The Death of Agamemnon
While Agamemnon was away fighting the Trojans, his wife, Clytemnestra, took a lover named
Aegisthus. As Agamemnon sailed home from Troy, Clytemnestra was plotting to kill him in revenge for
his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia.
In the meantime, Cassandra, who had the power to foretell the future, warned Agamemnon that his wife
would kill him. However, the gods had put a curse on Cassandra: although she would make accurate
predictions, no one would believe them. True to the curse, Agamemnon ignored Cassandra's warning.
When Agamemnon returned home, Clytemnestra welcomed him by preparing a bath in which he could
purify himself. As the king stepped out of the bath, however, Clytemnestra wrapped him in a garment
or a net that bound his arms so that he could not move. Aegisthus then stabbed Agamemnon to death
while Clytemnestra killed Cassandra. It is also said that Clytemnestra herself slew Agamemnon with an
ax. Agamemnon's son Orestes eventually avenged the murder by murdering both Clytemnestra and
Aegisthus with the help of his sister Electra.

The Greeks told many stories about humans trying to be like gods. Greek myths taught lessons about
this. In myths, humans had fatal flaws that doomed them to fail. The Greeks were warning against what
they called hubris, excessive pride.The Greeks believed that individuals must face their fate with pride
and dignity, gaining as much fame as possible. People—such as Agamemnon—who believed they
could change fate by their own actions were guilty of hubris. They would eventually be punished by
Nemesis, the vengeance of the gods.