h( Klutaimne/stra

Orestes pursues Clytemnestra: Fifth century BCE, Louvre Museum

Clytemnestra was the daughter of Tyndareus, sister of Helen, and wife of Agamemnon. When Agamenon returned to Mycenae from the Trojan War, she (or she and her lover Aegisthus) killed him and the Trojan princess Cassandra whom Agamennon had brought with him from Troy. Her son Orestes eventually returned to Mycenae and murdered his mother to avenge the death of his father. A central figure in Aeschylus' tragedy Agamemnon, she is also found in the works of other major classical Greek writers as well as in paintings and sculpture since the sixth century BCE.

 

FURTHER INFORMATION

Clytemnestra on the Greek Mythology Link

Sources Ancient and Modern from Classics, University of Wales, Lampeter

Perseus Encyclopedia Article

Pantheon Article with Links to Related Characters

Article from "Mortal Women of the Trojan War" with two paintings

IMAGES

Eighth Century BCE Oinochoe, Boston MFA. Perhaps a scene of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus killing Agamemnon.

Fifth century BCE red figure, Berlin painter

Fifth century BCE red figure kylix, Byrgos painter (?) Metropolitan MFA

Orestes kills Agamemnon and watches Clytaemnestra flee

Clytaemnestra by John Collier

Modern Clytaemnestras from Omnibus (28 and 36)

Alison W. Barker, February, 2001