About Clytemnestra     Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, and sister of Castor, Pollux, and Helen.  Agamemnon commands Clytemnestra to take Iphigenia to Aulis, where the Greek fleet is preparing for the trip to Troy, not knowing that it is planned to sacrifice Iphigenia to Artemis for the sake of the expedition.  While Agamemnon is fighting the Trojan war, Clytemnestra takes Agamemnon's arch rival and cousin, Aegisthus, as her lover.  When Agamemnon returns from the war Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murder him.
Possible justification of Clytemestra's act:

• Agamemnon killed her first husband
• Revenge for the sacrifice of Iphigenia, her daughter.
• Jealousy, when her husband returned from Troy he brought Cassandra, his foreign mistress.

Seven years later her son Orestes, grown to manhood, kills them both his mother and Aegisthus in revenge. Back to Family Tree Back to Literature Index