Agamemnon, << `ag` uh MEHM non, >> in Greek mythology, led the Greek army that conquered Troy in the Trojan War. Agamemnon was the king of Mycenae (or Argos). He married the princess Clytemnestra. Their children included Electra, Iphigenia, and Orestes.
Agamemnon assembled the Greek forces at Aulis before sailing for Troy. But the goddess Artemis refused to send favorable winds because Agamemnon had offended her. At Artemis’s command, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia so that the army could sail for Troy. One version tells that Iphigenia died in the sacrifice. Another tells that Artemis rescued her.
In the last year of the Trojan War, Agamemnon angered the god Apollo because he refused to return the captured maiden Chryseis to her father, a priest of Apollo. As punishment, Apollo sent a plague to afflict the Greek army. Agamemnon then returned Chryseis but in exchange he demanded the captive maiden Briseis from his rival, the warrior Achilles. The bitter quarrel that resulted between Achilles and Agamemnon became a major theme of the Greek epic the Iliad.
After Troy fell, Agamemnon returned to Mycenae with the Trojan princess Cassandra as his captive. Clytemnestra, aided by her lover, Aegisthus, killed them out of revenge for what she thought was the death of Iphigenia. Orestes killed his mother and Aegisthus to avenge the murder of Agamemnon.
