In Homer's Illiad, Agamemnon was King of Mycenae and leader of the Greek army during the Trojan War. His portrayal is like a great warrior, but a selfish leader. He is known for disturbing his unbeatable master Achilles, who kept the war going and made his men suffer. Unfortunately, there is no record of a Mycenaean king with that name, but the city was prosperous in the Bronze Age, and it may have been an actual attack on Troy led by the Greeks, although it was much shorter. Archaeological evidence shows that both of these ideas are true. However, the famous gold mask was found in a shaft grave near Mycenae and known as the "Agamemnon mask" made 400 years before any possible Agamemnon candidate that fits a timeline of the Trojan War.
Agamemnon's Early Life
Prophecies cast a shadow over Agamemnon's life. Atreus, Agamemnon's father, killed all his twin brother Thyestes' children, except Aegisthus, and fed them to Thyestes. Thyestes vowed to return to Atreus' children in a terrible way. Aegisthus took the throne in Mycenae, and he and Thyestes ruled together. During this time King Tyndareus of Sparta took Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus. There they married Clytemnestra and Helen, who were Tyndareus' daughters.
Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children. One was a boy named Orestes, and the other three were girls named Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis. Menelaus took over for Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with the help of his brother, drove Aegisthus and Thyestes out of the kingdom to get it back to his father. He took over more land and became the most powerful prince in Greece.
Agamemnon's family history was full of rape, murder, incest and betrayal. This dark story was because their ancestor Tantalus had done a terrible thing, and then Pelops, Tantalus' son, was cursed by Myrtilus, whom he had killed. So bad luck followed the house of Atreus for many generations until Orestes settled it in a court of both gods and humans.
Family
Agamemnon was either the son or grandson of Atreus, in which case Pleisthenes was his father. His mother, Aerope, was from Crete, which helped to connect the Mycenaean culture of the Greek Peloponnese with the Minoan civilization of Crete in the Bronze Age. He was married to Clytemnestra and had three daughters with her. Chrysothemis, Laodicea and Iphianassa are their names in one version, but Chrysothemis, Electra and Iphigeneia are later versions. Menelaus, king of Sparta, was the brother of Agamemnon
Agamemnon's personality
Agamemnon is like Achilles; he has a short temper and is very proud. He is not as strong as Achilles and is not a particularly good warrior. Agamemnon is very stubborn, something some might say makes him very proud. Although Agamemnon does not take many risks in battle, he still makes progress for the Greeks. As king, Agamemnon's insistence on leading a fight for his brother Menelaus' stolen bride is loyal, but it is also possible that this is just a cover for a raid to steal things. Unlike Achilles, Agamemnon cares most about himself, so he looks at other people based on how they affect him.
Mycenae
Homer says that Zeus gave Agamemnon the king's scepter and the right to rule over the Mycenaeans and all the Acacian Greeks. Agamemnon is said to be a great warrior and a good leader for men because of this. Plato says his name comes from the Greek word menein, which means "to endure." The Mycenaeans, located 15 km from the sea in the northern Peloponnese, did well, and Homer calls it a "well-built citadel", "wide road" and "golden". This mythical wealth has its support from finding more than 15 kilos of gold objects in shaft graves on the fortified acropolis, which still towers over the plain today. More excavations have shown that the city was once 30,000 XNUMX square meters in size and had its original habitation during the Neolithic.
Agamemnon gave the gods his daughter as a gift
The sad story of Agamemnon's life continues. He is in charge of the Greek forces, but there is no wind at this crucial time, so the ships cannot sail to Troy. Agamemnon had angered Artemis by boasting that he was a better hunter, so she stopped the wind as a punishment. Agamemnon must make a difficult choice to break the curse and make the goddess happy. He sends Iphigenia, his daughter, to the port. The girl is happy because she thinks her father is making plans for her to marry the famous war hero Achilles. In the midst of all this deception, Agamemnon gives his daughter to the gods as a sacrifice. Then the wind begins to blow, and the Greeks set sail for Troy.
At home, Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, is understandably very angry. The sacrifice of their daughter makes her hate her husband even more, and while Agamemnon is fighting in the Trojan War, she has an affair with his cousin Aegisthus.
Clytemnestra and Agamemnon
While Agamemnon is in exile in Sparta, he marries Clytemnestra, the daughter of the Spartan king. According to some versions of the story, Clytemnestra was previously married, and to win her hand in marriage to Agamemnon, he had her ex-husband and their newborn boy killed. This story helps to understand the hostility that exists in their marriage. Despite this, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra are the parents of four children:a man named Orestes, as well as three girls named Iphigenia, Electra and Chrysothemis.
Menelaus and Helen
Meanwhile, in Greek mythology, Helen, Clytemnestra's sister, is described as the most beautiful lady in the world. As a result, Sparta attracts lovers from far and wide who compete for the opportunity to win her hand in marriage. To prevent a bloody quarrel or war, each candidate must take the oath of Tyndareus, in which she swears to defend her new spouse. Menelaus, Helen's future husband and Agamemnon's brother, becomes heir to the throne of Sparta because of their marriage. Menelaus was a favorite of Helen's father.
The start of the Trojan War
Homer's Iliad, written in the 8th century BCE but based on an older oral tradition, is our main source on the Trojan War. Ancient Greeks believed that the battle of the 13th century BC. was real. The myth represented the Greeks' struggle against foreign powers and spoke of a period when men were better, more competent and more honorable. After Homer, the Trojan War remained a common motif in Greek and Roman literature, appearing in Aeschylus 'Agamemnon, Euripides' Trojan women, and Virgil's Aeneid. Later writers, such as Aeschylus, changed the narrative for a dramatic impact on a famous audience. Artists in the following millennium also favored war scenes.
Paris, a Trojan prince, kidnapped Helen, Menelaus' wife, from Sparta. Paris saw her as her compensation for choosing Aphrodite over Athena and Hera at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. Menelaus begged Agamemnon to form a coalition of Greek troops and save Helen. Agamemnon did this, and forces from Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Rhodes, and elsewhere in Greece marched in large fleets to Anatolia.
Agamemnon insulted Artemis when he killed one of her sacred deer and boasted that he was a more excellent hunter than her. Artemis reassured the Greek fleet as punishment, and only Iphigeneia's victim faded her. Agamemnon presented his daughter as a sacrifice, but the goddess replaced a deer and appointed Iphigeneia a priestess in Tauris. In Aeschylus' version, Agamemnon kills his young daughter, securing his wife's lifelong hostility and his death.
The differences between Achilles and Agamemnon
When the Greeks finally arrived in Troy, they spent most of the next nine years besieging the well-defended city. After that, some clashes led nowhere, but the Iliad says that the most critical parts of the war would soon come.
But after another match that did not end, things became more interesting when Menelaus fought against Paris and Paris 'brother Hector, and then Ajax fought against Paris' brother Hector. In none of the duels did anyone die.
Although he had skills, Koon Agamemnon stuck in his arm. Koon's punishment was to lose his head, so the king returned to his camp. The next big thing was when the Trojans attacked the Greek camp and set fire to their ships. The Greeks were terrible, and Agamemnon was mostly to blame. He had angered Achilles, the best fighter in all of Greece, when he broke the rules and stole the hero's booty, Briseis, a woman.
Because of this, Achilles became angry and did not want to fight. So Agamemnon sent Odysseus to get Achilles back in the fight by offering him a lot of money. Achilles said no, and Hector killed his best friend, Patroclus. Achilles put on his armor and killed Hector to give the Greeks the lead back in the war. Nevertheless, the war continued, and it was not until Odysseus' trick with the wooden horse, which allowed the Greeks to enter the city, that Troy finally fell.
Archeology and the Trojan War
There may have been a war between the Mycenaeans and the Hittites in Anatolia in the late Bronze Age. Excavations at Troy have shown that Troy VI (1750-1300 BC), one of the many layers in the site's history, is the most likely candidate for the city that Homer's Trojan War tells. Homer's description of the "strongly built Troy" fits well with impressive walls with several towers. The lower city is a huge 270,000 XNUMX square meters protected by a rock ditch. It looks like a magnificent city like the legendary Troy.
Troy VI was also partially destroyed. There was evidence of fire, and bronze arrowheads, spearheads and slingshots built into the fortress walls, which strongly indicates a certain conflict. Herodotus' dates for the Trojan War correspond to the dates of these events (1250 BCE) and the destruction of the site. Homer's ten - year war has hardly happened, but the myth may be rooted in smaller, more frequent wars between the Mycenaeans and the Hittites as they fought for trade routes in the Aegean Sea.
Death and Homecoming
After a stormy journey, Agamemnon and Cassandra either landed in Argolis or went off course and landed in Aegisthus' land. Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, had an affair with Aegisthus, son of Thyestes. When Agamemnon returned home, either Aegisthus or Clytemnestra killed him. Pindar and the tragedies say that Agamemnon was killed in a bath by his wife alone. First, he became disabled by being wrapped in a blanket or net. Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra. People say she did what she did because she was jealous of Cassandra. She was also angry that the murder of Iphigenia had taken place and that Agamemnon had gone to war over Helen.
Aegisthus and Clytemnestra then ruled the kingdom of Agamemnon for some time. Aegisthus claimed that he had the right to take revenge because Agamemnon's father, Atreus, had fed Thyeste's children. Thyestes said, "Then perish the whole race of the Philistines!" to make Aegisthus' Orestes, Agamemnon's son, later killed Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, his mother, in revenge for his father's death. He did this with the help or encouragement of Sister Electra. This action made Erinye's angry, winged goddesses who used hunting noses to find the most evil people and drive them crazy.
The mask of Agamemnon and his tomb
The so-called "Agamemnon's death mask" is a funeral mask made of beaten gold found in Grave Circle A, Mycenae. It dates back to the middle of the 16th century BC. The mask, one of five, was made 400 years before Agamemnon. But it still shows that Homer was right when he said that the Mycenaeans were "rich in gold". Heinrich Schliemann excavated both Troy and Mycenae in the 18th century AD. He was the first person to say that it belonged to Agamemnon. Some experts believe that putting a mask on the face of the deceased is one of Europe's earliest attempts to create a portrait. The mask is always on display at the Athens National Archaeological Museum.
The famous Tholos tomb called the Atreus Treasury is located just outside the Acropolis of Mycenae. It is a large circular building with a roof that is 14.6 m in diameter and 13.5 m high. Reaching it was possible through a 36 m long, 6 m wide corridor with walls but without a roof. Again, it is too early to link to the mythical Agamemnon because there are no written or pictorial records of it, and its production took place in the 14th century BCE. But even though the Mycenaeans had been gone for a long time, Agamemnon cults started in later centuries. This happened especially at Mycenae, where his tomb was considered present. There were also considerations that the tomb of this great mythical king who had ruled Greece in the age of the heroes is present in Chaeronea, Klazomenai, Tarentum and Laconian.
Different stories about Agamemnon
Athenaeus tells a story about how Agamemnon felt when his friend Argynnus died in the river Cephisus. He laid him to rest and built a tomb and a shrine to Aphrodite Argynnis in his honor. This story is also told, with minor changes, in Clement of Alexandria, Stephen of Byzantium (Kopai and Argunnos) and Propertius III.
Agamemnon's life has been the subject of many old and new tragedies. The most famous of these is Oresteia by Aeschylus. Moreover, Agamemnon was regarded as the most powerful type of ruler in Peloponnesian history and was revered as Zeus Agamemnon in Sparta. Eventually, his tomb was excavated in the ruins of Mycenae and Amyclae
In another story, he is the son of Pleisthenes, the son or father of Atreus, and the first husband of Aerope.
Art shows many similarities between Zeus, the ruler of the gods, and Agamemnon, the king of men. For example, his depiction is usually with a scepter and a crown, which are things that kings generally have.
Aetha was the name of Agamemnon's horse. She was also one of the two horses that Menelaus rode at Patroclus' funeral games.
The conclusion
Agamemnon is the king of the Mycenaeans and a hero from the Trojan War in Greek mythology. Greek mythology tells of how good Agamemnon was on the battlefield. It also tells us how his pride and a fight with Achilles almost killed him. After Agamemnon returns home, his wife is known to have killed him.