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Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra (; grc-gre, Κλυταιμνήστρα, ''Klytaimnḗstrā'', ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the twin sister of Helen of Troy. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom Agamemnon had taken as a war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's ''Odyssey'', her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued. Name Her Greek name ''Klytaimnḗstra'' is also sometimes Latinized as Clytaemnestra. It is commonly glossed as "famed for her suitors". However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb ''mnáomai'' (, "woo, court"). The original name form is believed to have been ''Klytaimḗstra'' () without the ''-n-''. The present form of the name does not appear before the middle Byzantine period. Homeric poetry shows an awareness of bot ...
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Oresteia
The ''Oresteia'' ( grc, Ὀρέστεια) is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus in the 5th century BCE, concerning the murder of Agamemnon by Clytemnestra, the murder of Clytemnestra by Orestes, the trial of Orestes, the end of the curse on the House of Atreus and the pacification of the Erinyes. The trilogy—consisting of ''Agamemnon'' (), '' The Libation Bearers'' (), and ''The Eumenides'' ()—also shows how the Greek gods interacted with the characters and influenced their decisions pertaining to events and disputes. The only extant example of an ancient Greek theatre trilogy, the ''Oresteia'' won first prize at the Dionysia festival in 458 BCE. The principal themes of the trilogy include the contrast between revenge and justice, as well as the transition from personal vendetta to organized litigation. ''Oresteia'' originally included a satyr play, ''Proteus'' (), following the tragic trilogy, but all except a single line of ''Proteus'' has been lost. ''Agame ...
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Κλυταιμνήστρα
Clytemnestra (; grc-gre, Κλυταιμνήστρα, ''Klytaimnḗstrā'', ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the twin sister of Helen of Troy. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom Agamemnon had taken as a war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's ''Odyssey'', her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued. Name Her Greek name ''Klytaimnḗstra'' is also sometimes Latinized as Clytaemnestra. It is commonly glossed as "famed for her suitors". However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb ''mnáomai'' (, "woo, court"). The original name form is believed to have been ''Klytaimḗstra'' () without the ''-n-''. The present form of the name does not appear before the middle Byzantine period. Homeric poetry shows an awareness of bo ...
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Clytemnestra (Collier)
''Clytemnestra'', also known as ''Clytemnestra after the Murder'', is a 1882 oil painting by John Collier. It has been held by the Guildhall Art Gallery, in the City of London, since 1893. A second version, c. 1914, is held by Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum. Description and analysis The painting measures . It depicts Clytemnestra, mythical daughter of the Spartan queen Leda and sister of Helen of Troy, who herself became queen of ancient Mycenae. In an episode recounted in the tragic play ''Agamemnon'' by Aeschylus, the stern-faced queen is shown at the palace of Argos, shortly after she has killed her husband Agamemnon in revenge for his sacrifice of their youngest daughter Iphigenia to secure favourable winds for the journey home at the end of the siege of Troy. Agamemnon returned home with the captured Trojan princess Cassandra, but an enraged Clytemnestra murdered them both (in some accounts she is assisted by their son Orestes, and in others Agamemnon is killed by her l ...
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Iphigenia
In Greek mythology, Iphigenia (; grc, Ἰφιγένεια, , ) was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra, and thus a princess of Mycenae. In the story, Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis on his way to the Trojan War by hunting and killing one of Artemis' sacred stags. She retaliates by preventing the Greek troops from reaching Troy unless Agamemnon kills his eldest daughter, Iphigenia, at Aulis as a human sacrifice. In some versions, Iphigenia dies at Aulis, and in others, Artemis rescues her. In the version where she is saved, she goes to the Taurians and meets her brother Orestes.Evans (1970), p. 141 Name "Iphigenia" means "strong-born," "born to strength," or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring." Iphianassa Iphianassa () is the name of one of Agamemnon's three daughters in Homer's ''Iliad'' (ix.145, 287) The name Iphianassa may be simply an older variant of the name Iphigenia. "Not all poets took Iphigenia and Iphianassa to be two names for the s ...
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Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra, Laodice (Greek myth), Laodike (Λαοδίκη), Orestes and Chrysothemis. Legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, Peloponnese, Argos, thought to be different names for the same area. Agamemnon was killed upon his Returns from Troy, return from Troy, either by his wife's lover Aegisthus or by his wife herself. Etymology His name in Greek, Ἀγαμέμνων, means "very steadfast", "unbowed" or "resolute". The word comes from Linguistic reconstruction, *Ἀγαμέδμων (''*Agamédmōn'') from ἄγαν, "very much" and wikt:μέδομαι, μέδομαι, "think on". Description In the account of Dares Phrygius, Dares the Phrygian, Agamemnon was described as ". . .bl ...
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Leda (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Leda (; Ancient Greek: Λήδα ) was an Aetolian princess who became a Spartan queen. According to Ovid, she was famed for her beautiful black hair and snowy skin. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan. Family Leda was the daughter of the Aetolian King Thestius hence she was also called Thestias. Her mother was either Leucippe, Deidameia, daughter of Perieres, Eurythemis, daughter of Cleoboea, or Laophonte, daughter of Pleuron.Alcman. ''Fragment 15'' as cited in ''Scholiast'' on Apollonius of Rhodes. ''Argonautica, 1.146'' According to Alcman, Leda's parents were Glaucus and Laophonte while Eumelus attested that they are Sisyphus and Panteiduia or Paneidyia. She married king Tyndareus of Sparta and by him became the mother of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux (also called "Polydeuces"). Leda also had three other daughters by Tyndareus: Timandra, Phoebe, and Philonoe. Mythology Le ...
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Cassandra
Cassandra or Kassandra (; Ancient Greek: Κασσάνδρα, , also , and sometimes referred to as Alexandra) in Greek mythology was a Trojan priestess dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never to be believed. In modern usage her name is employed as a rhetorical device to indicate a person whose accurate prophecies, generally of impending disaster, are not believed. Cassandra was a daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. Her elder brother was Hector, the hero of the Greek-Trojan war. The older and most common versions of the myth state that she was admired by the god Apollo, who sought to win her love by means of the gift of seeing the future. According to Aeschylus, she promised him her favours, but after receiving the gift, she went back on her word. As the enraged Apollo could not revoke a divine power, he added to it the curse that nobody would believe her prophecies. In other sources, such as Hyginus and Pseudo-Apollodorus, Ca ...
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Mycenae
Mycenae ( ; grc, Μυκῆναι or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. The site is inland from the Saronic Gulf and built upon a hill rising above sea level. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece, Crete, the Cyclades and parts of southwest Anatolia. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae. At its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares. The first correct identification of Mycenae in modern literature was during a survey conducted by Francesco Grimani, commissioned by the Provveditore Generale of the Kingdom of the Morea in 1700, who used Pausanias's description of the Lio ...
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Helen Of Troy
Helen of Troy, Helen, Helena, (Ancient Greek: Ἑλένη ''Helénē'', ) also known as beautiful Helen, Helen of Argos, or Helen of Sparta, was a figure in Greek mythology said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world. She was believed to have been the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was the sister of Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux, Philonoe, Phoebe and Timandra. She was married to King Menelaus of Sparta "who became by her the father of Hermione, and, according to others, of Nicostratus also." The usual tradition is that after the goddess Aphrodite promised her to Paris in the Judgement of Paris, she was seduced by him and carried off to Troy. This resulted in the Trojan War when the Achaeans set out to reclaim her. Another ancient tradition, told by Stesichorus, tells of how "not she, but her wraith only, had passed to Troy, while she was borne by the Gods to the land of Egypt, and there remained until the day when her lord Menelaus, turning aside on the homewar ...
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Electra
Electra (; grc, Ήλέκτρα) is one of the most popular mythological characters in tragedies.Evans (1970), p. 79 She is the main character in two Greek tragedies, '' Electra'' by Sophocles and '' Electra'' by Euripides. She is also the central figure in plays by Aeschylus, Alfieri, Voltaire, Hofmannsthal, and Eugene O'Neill. She is a vengeful soul in '' The Libation Bearers'', the second play of Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'' trilogy. She plans out an attack with her brother to kill their mother, Clytemnestra. In psychology, the Electra complex is named after her. Family Electra's parents were King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra. Her sisters were Iphigeneia and Chrysothemis, and her brother was Orestes. In the ''Iliad'', Homer is understood to be referring to Electra in mentioning "Laodice" as a daughter of Agamemnon. Murder of Agamemnon Electra was absent from Mycenae when her father, King Agamemnon, returned from the Trojan War. When he came back, he brought with him his w ...
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Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus.The remnant of a commemorative inscription, dated to the 3rd century BC, lists four, possibly eight, dramatic poets (probably including Choerilus, Phrynichus, and Pratinas) who had won tragic victories at the Dionysia before Aeschylus had. Thespis was traditionally regarded the inventor of tragedy. According to another tradition, tragedy was established in Athens in the late 530s BC, but that may simply reflect an absence of records. Major innovations in dramatic form, credited to Aeschylus by Aristotle ...
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Tyndareus
In Greek mythology, Tyndareus (; Ancient Greek: Τυνδάρεος, ''Tundáreos''; Attic Greek, Attic: Τυνδάρεως, ''Tundáreōs''; ) was a Spartan king. Family Tyndareus was the son of Oebalus (or Perieres (king of Messenia), Perieres) and Gorgophone (or Batea (mythology), Bateia). He married the Aetolian princess, Leda (mythology), Leda, by whom he became the father of Castor (mythology), Castor, Clytemnestra, Timandra (mythology), Timandra, Phoebe (mythological characters), Phoebe and Philonoe, and the stepfather of Helen of Troy and Pollux (mythology), Pollux. Mythology Early years Tyndareus had a brother named Hippocoon, who seized power and exiled Tyndareus. He was reinstated by Heracles, who killed Hippocoon and his sons. Tyndareus’ other brother was Icarius of Sparta, Icarius, the father of Penelope. Tyndareus’ wife Leda (mythology), Leda was seduced by Zeus, who disguised himself as a swan. She laid two eggs, each producing two children. When Thyestes ...
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