Flounder's Bricks
Atreides Agamemnon, Hegemon of the Achaeans
Ἀγαμέμνω Ἄτρειδες, Ηγήμων Ἀκαιῶν
Agamemnon, son of Atreus, was the king of Mycenae, one of the most important cities in the Greek world, and the leading general of the Greek forces at Troy. The historical Agamemnon can be placed around 1250 BCE, around the sack of Troy (if he did indeed exist as we know him).
After Helen's kidnapping, it was Agamemnon who gathered together the finest houses of Hellas to set sail for Troy. The Greeks were honor bound to assist Menelaus, Helen's husband, in returning her to Sparta because of a protective pact they had all made with Tyndareus when they were competing for his daughter's hand in marriage so many years ago. Unhappy about it, but consoled by the prospect of glory, fame, and plunder — and perhaps afraid of retribution from Agamemnon — the Greeks joined in contingency.
Homeric politics made strength a prerequisite to leadership. Though not elected, Agamemnon was the de facto "hegemon" of the Greek expedition because he commanded the most ships (one hundred), and ruled the largest city in Greece. On the Plain of Illium he was the first among equal kings, who often dissented, but were mostly compelled to fall in line.
Agamemnon's life was fraught, to say the least.
At Aulis, Artemis demanded the blood sacrifice of his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, before allowing the Greeks passage to Troy. Agamemnon consented.
At Troy, he took the brunt of the army's ire when the siege dragged on for a miserable ten years. Hoping to shame them into fighting harder, he once offered them the chance to sail for home, and was mortified to see the men run to their ships, relieved. Only the combined authority of the Greek kings restrained them.
In the tenth and final year, Agamemnon's pride cost the Greeks dearly. When a priest of Apollo supplicated at the Greek camp for the return of his captive daughter — Agamemnon's war prize — Agamemnon turned him away.
The priest prayed to his patron god for vengeance, and Apollo struck the Greeks with a virulent plague. For the success of the campaign, Agamemnon was forced to give the girl back, and he took Achilles' prize slave-woman to save his pride.
This affront to Achilles sent the young war-fighter storming off. Achilles renounced the Greeks, and vowed that he would not return to the war until many thousands of Greeks had been slaughtered. Later, Agamemnon would come around to the idea of making amends with Achilles, but he wouldn't go to his tent himself. The peace-offering failed accordingly, and Achilles would later rejoin the fighting only after the tragic death of his friend Patroclus.
After the city fell, Agamemnon returned to his home in Mycenae with another slave girl, Cassandra, who was a princess of Troy. Jealous, and seeking vengeance for the sacrifice of her daughter, Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, killed the king in his bathtub (see Aeschylus) with the help of her secret lover, Aegisthus.
After his death, the chthonic cult of Agamemnon was worshipped by his children Orestes and Electra.
Atreides Agamemnon, Hegemon of the Achaeans
Ἀγαμέμνω Ἄτρειδες, Ηγήμων Ἀκαιῶν
Agamemnon, son of Atreus, was the king of Mycenae, one of the most important cities in the Greek world, and the leading general of the Greek forces at Troy. The historical Agamemnon can be placed around 1250 BCE, around the sack of Troy (if he did indeed exist as we know him).
After Helen's kidnapping, it was Agamemnon who gathered together the finest houses of Hellas to set sail for Troy. The Greeks were honor bound to assist Menelaus, Helen's husband, in returning her to Sparta because of a protective pact they had all made with Tyndareus when they were competing for his daughter's hand in marriage so many years ago. Unhappy about it, but consoled by the prospect of glory, fame, and plunder — and perhaps afraid of retribution from Agamemnon — the Greeks joined in contingency.
Homeric politics made strength a prerequisite to leadership. Though not elected, Agamemnon was the de facto "hegemon" of the Greek expedition because he commanded the most ships (one hundred), and ruled the largest city in Greece. On the Plain of Illium he was the first among equal kings, who often dissented, but were mostly compelled to fall in line.
Agamemnon's life was fraught, to say the least.
At Aulis, Artemis demanded the blood sacrifice of his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, before allowing the Greeks passage to Troy. Agamemnon consented.
At Troy, he took the brunt of the army's ire when the siege dragged on for a miserable ten years. Hoping to shame them into fighting harder, he once offered them the chance to sail for home, and was mortified to see the men run to their ships, relieved. Only the combined authority of the Greek kings restrained them.
In the tenth and final year, Agamemnon's pride cost the Greeks dearly. When a priest of Apollo supplicated at the Greek camp for the return of his captive daughter — Agamemnon's war prize — Agamemnon turned him away.
The priest prayed to his patron god for vengeance, and Apollo struck the Greeks with a virulent plague. For the success of the campaign, Agamemnon was forced to give the girl back, and he took Achilles' prize slave-woman to save his pride.
This affront to Achilles sent the young war-fighter storming off. Achilles renounced the Greeks, and vowed that he would not return to the war until many thousands of Greeks had been slaughtered. Later, Agamemnon would come around to the idea of making amends with Achilles, but he wouldn't go to his tent himself. The peace-offering failed accordingly, and Achilles would later rejoin the fighting only after the tragic death of his friend Patroclus.
After the city fell, Agamemnon returned to his home in Mycenae with another slave girl, Cassandra, who was a princess of Troy. Jealous, and seeking vengeance for the sacrifice of her daughter, Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, killed the king in his bathtub (see Aeschylus) with the help of her secret lover, Aegisthus.
After his death, the chthonic cult of Agamemnon was worshipped by his children Orestes and Electra.