Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra is a figure in Greek mythology, the daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, and the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. She is the sister of Castor and Pollux and of Helen, and the mother of Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes. Her story is most closely associated with the aftermath of the Trojan War.

After Agamemnon sacrifices their daughter Iphigenia to obtain favorable winds for the Greek fleet, Clytemnestra, sometimes with her lover Aegisthus, murders Agamemnon upon his return from Troy. In many tellings this act leads to a period of rule by Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, though the details vary. The murder is a central pivot in the Oresteia tradition and in Greek tragedy more broadly, illustrating themes of vengeance, power, and the collision between private and public duties.

Orestes, the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, returns to avenge his father. With Electra, he kills Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. In Aeschylus’s Oresteia, Orestes is pursued by the Furies and eventually acquitted by Athena, signaling a transition from cycles of blood vengeance to a system of judicial justice.

Clytemnestra is one of Greek tragedy’s most debated figures. She is portrayed variously as a wronged wife, a calculating queen, or a potent embodiment of female power, and her story continues to provoke discussions of justice, loyalty, gender, and the costs of vengeance.