AGAMEMNON

AGAMEMNON, in Greek mythology, was a son of Atreus, brother of Menelaus, king of Mycenæ and general-in-chief of the Greeks in the Trojan war, represented as a man of stately presence and a proud spirit.

On the advice of the soothsayer Calchas he sacrificed his daughter IPHIGENIA for the success of the enterprise he conducted. He was assassinated by his wife Clytæmnestra and her lover Aegisthus, on his return from the war. His murder was avenged by his son Orestes and daughter Electra.

His fate and that of his house is the subject of Aeschylus' trilogy "Oresteia."