Commander of the Greek Host, King of Mycenae
King of Mycenae, who led the thousand ships to win back Helen for his brother Menelaus. He sacrificed his own daughter for a fair wind, then drove Achilles from battle by seizing his prize. On the very day of his triumphant return he died in his own bath — his wife’s revenge had waited ten full years.
The fleet lay becalmed at Aulis, and the oracle demanded the sacrifice of his eldest daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis’s wrath. He lured the girl in on the pretext of marriage to Achilles and delivered her to the altar with his own hand. Before the war even began, the commander had already lost his own house.
Ten years later he returned in triumph, a red carpet at his feet — his wife Clytemnestra’s trap. As he bathed she threw a robe over him and she and her lover struck again and again. The blood-debt of their daughter, and the insult of the captive Cassandra he brought home, were settled in one stroke. This chain of family murder (a son later kills the mother in turn) holds up half of Greek tragedy.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.
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