Agamemnon

Agamemnon, lord of men

King of Mycenae and commander of the whole Greek army at Troy. When he finally got home after the war, he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra.

From Mycenae and Argos. Today: Mykines and Argos, in the Peloponnese, Greece.
Strength 7/10 · Wisdom 6/10 · Courage 7/10 · Divinity 2/10 · Fame 9/10

The story

Son of Atreus and the most powerful king in Greece, he commanded the whole expedition. He was proud and quick to take offence, and taking Briseis from Achilles started the quarrel at the heart of the Iliad.

How it ends

Murdered by his wife Clytemnestra on his return, in revenge for Iphigenia. Their son Orestes later avenged him.

Still with us today

In 1876 Heinrich Schliemann found a gold death mask at Mycenae and called it the “Mask of Agamemnon”. It is actually about 300 years older than the Trojan War would have been.

Family

• Parents: Atreus
• Partners: Clytemnestra
• Children: Iphigenia, Orestes, Electra
• Siblings: Menelaus

Appears in

The Trojan War

Read about them in the Library

• Iliad 1: The quarrel
• Iliad 2: The dream and the ships
• Iliad 3: The duel for Helen
• Iliad 4: The truce is broken
• Iliad 9: The embassy to Achilles
• Iliad 10: The night raid
• Iliad 11: The Greek leaders wounded
• Iliad 19: Achilles and Agamemnon reconciled
• Odyssey 3: Nestor at Pylos
• Odyssey 4: Menelaus and Helen
• Odyssey 11: The land of the dead
• Odyssey 24: Peace
• and 3 more parts of the Library

Ancient sources

• Homer, Iliad
• Aeschylus (tragedies)

Agamemnon is a playable card in MythoTroy, the Trojan War card game.

History’s mirror

1455 to 1487The Wars of the RosesRevenge cycles do not end by one side winning. They end when someone finds a new way to settle things: a court for Orestes, a marriage for the Tudors.See the full mirror

In the sky and in space

• AsteroidsThe Trojan asteroids

  Thousands of asteroids share Jupiter's path round the Sun, in two swarms, one ahead and one behind. They are named after heroes of the Trojan War: Greeks in the front camp, Trojans in the back. There are two "spies": 624 Hektor sits among the Greeks and 617 Patroclus among the Trojans. NASA's Lucy spacecraft, launched in 2021, is on its way to visit them.

Explore all the myths in the sky