The Family of Agamemnon

Atreus, Agamemnon's father, murdered the children of his twin brother Thyestes and fed them to him after discovering Thyestes' adultery with his wife Aerope. Thyestes fathered Aegisthus with his own daughter, and this son vowed gruesome revenge on Atreus' children. Aegisthus successfully murdered Atreus and restored his father to the throne. Aegisthus took possession of the throne of Mycenae and ruled jointly with Thyestes. During this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. There they respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece.

Agamemnon's family history had been marred by rape, murder, incest, and treachery, consequences of the heinous crime perpetrated by their ancestor, Tantalus, and then of a curse placed upon Pelops, son of Tantalus, by Myrtilus, whom he had murdered. Thus misfortune hounded successive generations of the House of Atreus, until atoned by Orestes in a court of justice held jointly by humans and gods.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agamemnon

Agamemnon gathered the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. Preparing to depart from Aulis, which was a port in Boeotia, Agamemnon's army incurred the wrath of the goddess Artemis. There are several reasons throughout myth for such wrath: in Aeschylus' play Agamemnon, Artemis is angry for the young men who will die at Troy, whereas in Sophocles' Electra, Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasted that he was Artemis' equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a plague and a lack of wind, prevented the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet Calchas announced that the wrath of the goddess could only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia. Classical dramatisations differ on how willing either father or daughter were to this fate, some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to Achilles, but Agamemnon did eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeased Artemis, and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the human sacrifice have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as Iphigenia at Aulis, claim that Agamemnon was prepared to kill his daughter, but that Artemis accepted a deer in her place, and whisked her away to Taurus in Crimea. Hesiod said she became the goddess Hecate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agamemnon

Agamemnon was the commander-in-chief of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed Antiphus and 15 other Trojan soldiers. Agamemnon's teamster, Halaesus, later fought with Aeneas in Italy. The Iliad tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. Agamemnon took an attractive slave, Briseis, one of the spoils of war, from Achilles. Achilles, the greatest warrior of the age, withdrew from battle in revenge and nearly cost the Greek armies the war.

Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of kingly authority. As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. He took the field himself, and performed many heroic deeds until he was wounded and forced to withdraw to his tent. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult Chryses and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks.

After the capture of Troy, Cassandra, doomed prophetess and daughter of Priam, fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agamemnon

Chorus from Iphigenia in Tauris by Euripides

To avenge her daughter's murder, Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as her lover while she ruled Mycenae in the ten-year absence of Agamemnon at Troy. Together they murdered Agamemnon in the palace when he returned after the sack of Troy with Cassandra.

Orestes is best known for having murdered his own mother Clytaemnestra.

"Do you think that Orestes, if he had had all his wits about him and had known what was best for him to do, would have brought himself to commit any act of the sort? (Socrates. Plato, Alcibiades 143d).

Why did he commit this terrible deed? In order to avenge his father Agamemnon, who was in turn murdered by Clytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.

But why did she murder her husband? Because Agamemnon let his and Clytaemnestra's daughter Iphigenia be sacrificed at Aulis.

Why did Agamemnon such a thing? Because, according to the seer Calchas, that was the only way to tame the winds that bound the Achaean fleet at Aulis. And what was that fleet doing there? It had gathered in order to sail against Troy.

But why was it necessary for that fleet to sail to Troy? Because the Achaeans purposed to claim back Helen, who had been stolen by the Trojan Paris. And why did Paris abduct Helen?

Because Helen was given to Paris by Aphrodite. And why would this goddess do that?

In order to get the Golden Apple that Eris had thrown during the wedding party of Peleus and Thetis as a prize to be awarded to the fairest.

Why did Eris throw that apple?

Because she was not invited to the party.

Why was she not invited?

Zeus knows, for:

"Gods manifest themselves in many forms, bring many matters to surprising ends: the things we thought would happen do not happen, the unexpected God makes possible." (Women of Phthia. Euripides, Andromache 1285)

http://www.maicar.com/GML/Orestes2.html.