Agamemnon

, king of Mycenæ and Argos, was brother to Menelaus, and son of Plisthenes the son of Atreus. Homer calls them sons of Atreus, which is false, upon the authority of Hesiod, Apollo dor us, . See: Plisthenes . When Atreus was dead, his brother Thyestes seized the kingdom of Argos, and removed Agamemnon and Menelaus, who fled to Polyp hid us king of Sicyon, and hence to Œneus king of Ætolia, where they were educated. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, and Menelaus Helen, both daughters of Tyndarus king of Sparta, who a isted them to recover their father’s kingdom. After the banishment of the usurper to Cythera, Agamemnon established himself at Mycenæ, whilst Menelaus succeeded his father-in-law at Sparta. When Helen was stolen by Paris, Agamemnon was elected commander-in-chief of the Grecian forces going against Troy; and he showed his zeal in the cause by furnishing 100 ships, and lending 60 more to the people of Arcadia. The fleet was detained at Aulis, where Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter to appease Diana. See: Iphigenia . During the Trojan war, Agamemnon behaved with much valour; but his quarrel with Achilles, whose mistre he took by force, was fatal to the Greeks. See: Briseis . After the ruin of Troy, Cas sandra fell to his share, and foretold him that his wife would put him to death. He gave no credit to this, and returned to Argos with Cas sandra. Clytemnestra, with her adulterer Ægisthus [ See: Ægisthus ], prepared to murder him; and as he came from the bath, to embarra him, she gave him a tunic, whose sleeves were sewed together, and while he attempted to put it on, she brought him to the ground with a stroke of a hatchet, and Ægisthus seconded her blows. His death was revenged by his son Orestes. See: Clytemnestra , Menelaus , and Orestes . Homer , Iliad , bks. 1, 2, . ; Ody ey , bk. 4 , . — Ovid , Remedia Amoris , li. 777 ; Metamorphoses , bk. 12 , li. 30 .— Hyginus , fables 88 & 97.— Strabo , bk. 8 .— Thucydides , bk. 1 , ch. 9 .— Ælian , Varia Hist or i a , bk. 4 , ch. 26 .— Dictys Cretensis , bks. 1, 2, . — Dares Phrygius. — Sophocles , Electra .— Euripi des , Orestes .— Seneca , Agamemnon .— Pausanias , bk. 2 , ch. 6 ; bk. 9 , ch. 40 , . — Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 838 .— Mela , bk. 2 , ch. 3 .