Agamemnon
Agamemnon (in ancient Greek, Ἀγαμέμνων Agamemnôn) is one of the most distinguished heroes of Greek mythology whose adventures are narrated in the Iliad from Homer. Son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope, he was the brother of Menelaus.
Youth
In the Iliad and other works, Agamemnon is said to be the son of King Atreus, grandson of Pelops and great-grandson of Tantalus, although some consider him the son of Plisthenes and grandson of Atreus, in whose house he and Menelaus would have been educated after his father's death. His mother was Aerope according to most sources, but some name Eriphile as the wife of Plisthenes and mother of Agamemnon. In addition to Menelaus, Agamemnon had a sister named Anaxibia, Cindragora, or Astíoque.
Agamemnon and Menelaus were raised together with Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, in the home of Atreus. When they became adults, Atreus sent Agamemnon and Menelaus to find Thyestes. They found him at Delphi and brought him before Atreus, who threw him into a dungeon. Immediately afterwards, Aegisthus was ordered to kill him, but he, recognizing his father, refrained from such a cruel act, killed Atreus and, after having driven out Agamemnon and Menelaus, occupied the throne of Mycenae with his father. two brothers wandered for a time until they finally reached Sparta, where Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, the daughter of Tyndareus, with whom he was the father of Ifianasa (Iphigenia), Chrysothemis, Laodice (Electra) and Orestes, and Menelaus with Helen.
The way in which Agamemnon returned to the kingdom of Mycenae differs depending on the sources. In Homer's work it seems that he succeeded Thyestes peacefully, but according to others he expelled him and usurped the throne.After becoming king of Mycenae, he conquered Sicyon assuming his reign and became the most powerful prince in Greece. In the part of the Iliad known as the Catalogue of Ships, a list of Agamemnon's domains is set out. When Homer attributes to Agamemnon the sovereignty of all of Argos, refers to the Peloponnese or most of it, as the city of Argos was ruled by Diomedes. Strabo also notes that the name Argos was sometimes used by tragic poets as a synonym for Mycenae.
The Trojan War
When Paris, son of Priam, carried off Helen, all the Achaean warlords were summoned to organize an attack on Troy. The chieftains met at Diomedes' palace in Argos, where Agamemnon was chosen commander-in-chief, well as a consequence of his greater power, or because he won the favor of the assembly through rich gifts.
After seven years of preparations, the army and the Achaean fleet met in the port of Aulis in Boeotia. Agamemnon had previously consulted his lackey on the matter and the answer given was that war would break out at the moment when the most distinguished of the Greeks (Achilles and Odysseus) quarreled. A similar prophecy stemmed from a marvelous event that occurred while the Greeks were assembled at Aulis: when a sacrifice was offered under the branches of a tree, a dragon crawled out from under it and devoured a nest in the tree containing eight young and their mother. Calchas interpreted the signal as indicating that the Greeks were to go off to fight Troy for nine years, but in the tenth year the city would fall. Aeschylus recounts a different miracle foreshadowing the same thing. Another interesting event occurred while the Greeks were assembled at Aulis: It is said that Agamemnon killed a deer that was consecrated to Artemis, and also provoked the wrath of the goddess with irreverent words, for which she sent a plague to the Greek army and produced an absolute calm, so that the Greeks could not abandon the port due to lack of wind. When the seers affirmed that the wrath of the goddess could not be appeased unless Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, was offered to her as a compensatory sacrifice, Diomedes and Odysseus were sent to look for her in the camp on the pretext that she should marry Achilles.. She agreed to accompany them, but at the moment she was to be sacrificed she was taken by Artemis herself (according to other sources, by Achilles) to Tauride, and another victim took her place. the calm ceased, and the army set out for the coast of Troy. Agamemnon had a hundred ships, in addition to the sixty he had lent to the Arcadians.
In the tenth year of the siege of Troy — which is when the narrative Iliad begins — Agamemnon had a dispute with Achilles over the possession of Briseis, which the latter had to cede to the former. Achilles withdraws from the battlefield, and the Greeks fall victim to various disasters. Zeus sends a dream to Agamemnon to persuade him to lead the Greeks in battle against the Trojans. The king, to test the Greeks, commands them to return home, which they willingly comply, until their courage is revived by Odysseus, who persuades them to prepare for battle. Individual combat between Paris and Menelaus was followed by a battle in which Agamemnon killed several of the Trojans. When Hector challenged the bravest of the Greeks, Agamemnon offered to fight him, but Ajax was chosen instead by lot. Shortly after this another battle took place in which the Greeks were defeated and Agamemnon, dejected, advised them to flee and return home, but the other heroes opposed it. An attempt at reconciliation with Achilles failed, and Agamemnon summoned the chiefs at night to deliberate on the measures to be taken. Odysseus and Diomedes were sent as spies, and the contest with the Trojans was resumed the next day. Agamemnon himself was once again one of the bravest and killed many enemies with his bare hands. In the end, however, he was wounded by Coon and forced to retreat to his tent. Hector then advanced victoriously, and Agamemnon again advised the Greeks to save themselves by fleeing. But Odysseus and Diomedes again resisted, and the second he convinced him to turn to the battle that was taking place near the ships. Poseidon also appeared to Agamemnon in the form of an old man and inspired him with new courage. The pressing danger from the Greeks finally induced Patroclus, Achilles's friend, to take a forceful part in the battle, and his death caused Achilles to take part in the battle. return to action, leading to his reconciliation with Agamemnon. In the games in honor of Patroclus, Agamemnon took the first prize in the luck of throwing the spear.
Agamemnon, despite being the commander-in-chief of the Greeks, is not the hero of the Iliad, and in chivalrous spirit, bravery, and character he is altogether inferior to Achilles. But despite this he is above all the Greeks for his dignity, power and majesty, and his eyes and head are like Zeus's, his girdle like Ares's and his chest like Poseidon's. Agamemnon is among the Greek heroes what Zeus among the gods of Olympus. This idea seems to have guided the Greek artists, since in several representations of Agamemnon still preserved there is a remarkable resemblance to the representations of Zeus. In the Iliad, the emblem of his power and majesty is a scepter, the work of Hephaestus, which Zeus had given to Hermes and he to Pelops, and from him Atreus would inherit and from this Agamemnon. His armor is described in the Iliad.
Return to Greece
After the capture of Troy, Agamemnon received as part of the booty Cassandra, daughter of Priam and condemned prophetess, with whom, according to a tradition recorded by Pausanias, he had two sons: Teledamo and Pelops (the latter named after his great-grandfather).
During his return home, Agamemnon was twice sidetracked by storms, but eventually landed in the Argolis, then ruled by Aegisthus, who had seduced Clytemnestra during her husband's absence. Upon his arrival, Aegisthus invited him to a banquet, and in the course of it treacherously killed him and his companions, and on the same occasion Clytemnestra killed Cassandra. Odysseus met Agamemnon's shadow in the underworld. Menelaus erected a monument to his brother on the river Egypt. Pausanias claims that a monument to Agamemnon still existed at Mycenae in his day.
Tragic poets have extensively modified the story of Agamemnon's death. Aeschylus would have Clytemnestra kill Agamemnon alone: she would throw a net at him while he bathed, and then kill him with three blows. His motives were partly Agamemnon's sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia, and partly her death. Queen's adulterous life with Aegisthus. According to Tzetzes's account, Aegisthus killed Agamemnon with the help of Clytemnestra. Euripides tells that Clytemnestra wrapped a net around Agamemnon to kill him, and both he and Sophocles present Iphigenia's sacrifice as the reason she killed him. the death of Agamemnon and Cassandra, their sons were also killed by Aegisthus on their tomb. Mycenae possession of Cassandra's tomb.
Other stories
Athenaeus tells the story of Argino, an eromen of Agamemnon:
Agamemnon loved Argino, tells the story, having seen him swimming in the river Cefiso, in which he actually lost his life (because he was constantly bathing in this river), and Agamemnon buried him and founded there a temple of Afrodita Arginis.
This episode was also recorded by Clement of Alexandria and Stephanus of Byzantium with slight variations.
Several Latin poets mention a bastard son of Agamemnon, named Haleso, who is credited with founding the city of Falisci or Alesia. Haleso was Agamemnon's herdsman during the Trojan War, and fought later with Aeneas in Italy.
Representations
In later times statues of Agamemnon were erected in various places in Greece, and he was worshiped as a hero at Amyclas and Olympia. He was depicted on the pedestal of the celebrated Nemesis Ramnusia.
Agamemnon's fight against Columbus was represented on the chest of Cypselo.
The painter Polygnotus left a representation of Agamemnon in the Delphi lesque.
The so-called Agamemnon Mask does not correspond to the character: archaeologists consider the mask to be three centuries before the king, but the discoverer of the object called it that, and it is still used today known by that name.
Agamemnon appears in one of the simulations of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. The game version appears to be worshiped by the Cult of Kosmos.
Other uses
- "Agamemnon" is an epithet of Zeus with whom that god was worshiped in Sparta. Eustacio claims that the name was given to the god for his resemblance to Agamemnon. Others believe it is a simple epithet that means ‘Eterno’ (of ・γ manifestation and μ).
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