Clytemnestra

Mortal queen of Mycenae; daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, the mortal-fathered half-sister of Helen. Wife and killer of Agamemnon: maddened by his sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia at Aulis, she takes Aegisthus as lover and, on the king's return, snares him in a robe-net in the bath and cuts him down with the axe, killing Cassandra beside him — the deed at the centre of Aeschylus's Oresteia. Mother of Iphigenia, Electra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes; slain at last by Orestes, the matricide that looses the Erinyes. The mortal line through which her children descend.

Parentage

• Tyndareus
• Leda

Children

• Chrysothemis
• Electra
• Iphigenia
• Orestes

Domains

• queenship
• vengeance

Powers

• Snare and slay the returning king

Epithets

• Κλυταιμνήστρα

Relations

• sibling: Helen
• sibling: Castor
• spouse: Agamemnon
• lover: Aegisthus
• mother of: Iphigenia
• mother of: Electra
• mother of: Chrysothemis
• mother of: Orestes
• enemy: Orestes

Sources

• Homer Odyssey 3.262-310, 11.405-434, 24.199-202; Aeschylus Agamemnon, Choephoroi; Sophocles Electra; Euripides Electra, Orestes, Iphigenia at Aulis; Apollodorus Epitome 2.16, 6.23-25
• Apollod. 3.10.6-7; Eur. IA 49-51 (daughter of Tyndareus and Leda)