Agamemnon

Reading notes

• The Iliad §1.1 Agamemnon

  King of Mycenae and commander-in-chief of the Achaean expedition against Troy, brother of Menelaus; his insistence on keeping Chryseis brings the plague, and his seizure of Achilles's prize Briseis to compensate himself triggers the quarrel that drives the whole poem.

• The Odyssey §1.1 son of Agamemnon

  Leader of the Achaeans at Troy, murdered by Aegisthus on his homecoming; his story is the poem's dark foil to Odysseus's own hoped-for return.

• The Odyssey §3.124 the two sons of Atreus

  Agamemnon and Menelaus, whose quarrel over whether to sail home at once split the Achaean fleet after Troy fell.

• The Odyssey §9.1 the son of Agamemnon

  Odysseus claims to Polyphemus to be one of Agamemnon's men, invoking his fame as leverage — to no effect.