Clytemnestra also called Klytemnestre or Clytaemnestra (Greek: Κλυταιμνήστρα, English pronunciation [klaɪtəm'nɛstɹə]), in ancient Greek legend, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale who murdered her husband, Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan Princess Cassandra, whom he had taken as war prize following the sack of Troy. However, in Homer's Odyssey, her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued.
The name form Κλυταιμνήστρα (Klytaimnēstra) is commonly glossed as "famed for her suitors". However, this form may be a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb μναoμαι 'woo, court'. The original name form is believed to have been Κλυταιμήστρα (Klytaimēstra), without the -mn-, and the modern form with -mn- occurred only in the middle Byzantine period.[1] Aeschylus, in certain word plays on her name, appears to assume an etymological link with the verb μήδoμαι, 'scheme, contrive'.
Clytemnestra was the daughter of Tyndareus and Leda and mother of Iphigenia, Orestes, Chrysothemis, and Electra. According to the myth, Zeus appeared to Leda in the form of a swan, raping and impregnating her. Leda produced four offspring from two eggs: Castor and Polydeuces from one egg, and Helen and Clytemnestra from the other. Castor and Clytemnestra were fathered by Tyndareus whereas Polydeuces and Helen were fathered by Zeus. In Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis, Clytemnestra's first husband was Tantalus, who was slain by Agamemnon, King of Pisa (in the western Peloponnese), who then made Clytemnestra his wife.
Agamemnon was leading Greek forces in the Trojan War in Troy. However, consistently weak winds prevented his ships from sailing. Through a subplot involving the gods, he was told that the winds would return if he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. He persuaded Clytemnestra to send Iphigenia by deceptively telling her that the purpose of his daughter's visit was to marry her to Achilles. When Iphigenia arrived, she was sacrified. Clytemnestra learned of this event and grieved for her daughter.
During this period of Agamemnon's long absence, Clytemnestra began a love affair with Aegisthus, her husband's cousin (they produced a daughter, Erigone). Whether Clytemnestra was seduced into the affair or entered into it independently differs according to the respective author of the myth. Nevertheless, Clytemnestra, enraged by Iphigenia's murder (and presumably the earlier murder of her first husband by Agamemnon, and her subsequent rape and forced marriage), and Aegisthus, hungry for power, began plotting Agamemnon's demise.
Finally returning from Troy, Agamemnon arrived at his palace and was greeted by his wife. In tow was his concubine, the princess Cassandra. (Whether Clytemnestra was jealous of Cassandra is unknown. It was quite normal at the time for men to take concubines, usually acquired as war prizes, when on campaign.) Upon his arrival, he entered the palace for a banquet while Cassandra remained in the chariot. Clytemnestra waited until he was in the bath, and then entangled him in a cloth net and stabbed him. Trapped in the web, Agamemnon could neither escape nor resist his murderer. In Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Clytemnestra does the foul deed herself, but some texts, such as Homer's "Odyssey," mention others (see "Controversy").
Meanwhile, Cassandra saw a vision of herself and Agamemnon being murdered. Her attempts to elicit help failed (she had been cursed by Apollo that no one would believe her prophecies). She realized she was fated to die, and resolutely walked into the palace to receive her death.
After the murders, Aegisthus replaced Agamemnon as king and ruled for a few years with Clytemnestra as his queen. She was eventually killed by her own son Orestes.
Clytemnestra has been the subject of many artistic works.
| ←The Lost Lands | A Highland Regiment and
Other Poems by Clytemnestra |
Dedication→ |
OUT of the drinking cup,
Out of my own hearth-fire,
The taint of blood goes up.
The scent of the burning pyre.
When the feasters' shout is high.
Or the spinning maidens sing,
I hear the dead man's cry,
The dead who was my king.
For this is an ageless thing,
And the blood runs fresh again
In the cleansing draught from the spring
And the stored wine I drain.
And the joyous marriage-song,
And the drinking-song at the board,
Is the voice that sobbed so long
In the agony of my lord.
Oh dark stern face of him
I wedded and could not love,
Oh terrible eyes grown dim
And torn black hair above.
Oh hands so strong in fight,
So weak in the folding net,
Dead feet that by day and night
Follow the slayer yet,
Lo I am drawing near
To the door of the house of death.
Must I for ever hear
The sound of the labouring breath,
Must I for ever see
The murdered body lie.
And on my own roof-tree
The blood that will not dry ?
1914
Klytaimnestra (or Clytemnestra) was a person in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Tyndareos of Sparta and his wife Leda.
She was married to Agamemnon, King of Mycenae. With him her children were Iphigeneia, Elektra, Orestes and Chrysothemis.
After the Trojan War, Klytaimnestra and her lover Aegisthos killed Agamemnon. Klytaimnestra and Aegisthos are later killed by her son Orestes.
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search
