House of Atreus
Clytemnestra
The Queen Who Waited
Before the War
Clytemnestra was a daughter of Tyndareus, King of Sparta, and sister to Helen. In some traditions, she was first married to Tantalus, son of Thyestes, and had an infant son by him. Agamemnon killed both and took Clytemnestra as his wife by force.
She bore Agamemnon four children: Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes. For years she was Queen of Mycenae, managing the kingdom while her husband prepared for and waged war.
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
When the Greek fleet was becalmed at Aulis, the seer Calchas declared that Artemis demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Agamemnon lured his eldest daughter to Aulis under the pretense that she would marry Achilles.
Clytemnestra accompanied her daughter, only to discover the deception too late. Whether Iphigenia was actually killed or spirited away by Artemis varies by source — but for Clytemnestra, her daughter was murdered by her husband. This was the wound that never healed.
The Murder
During the ten years of the Trojan War, Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as her lover and co-conspirator. Together they planned Agamemnon's death. When the king returned victorious, she greeted him with ceremony — then killed him in his bath, tangled in a robe or net, struck with an axe.
Aeschylus gives her some of the most powerful speeches in Greek drama. She is unapologetic: 'I stand where I struck and the deed is done.' She presents herself not as a criminal but as an agent of justice — for Iphigenia, for her first husband, for all the wrongs Agamemnon committed.
“I stand where I struck and the deed is done. I contrived it so — I will not deny — that he could not escape his fate.”— Aeschylus, Agamemnon
“You took me by force — you killed my first husband and my baby, torn from my breast.”— Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis