Retaliation demanded against Trojan theft

The fleet gathers at Aulis

That is how Agamemnon, who at the time was the most powerful ruler in Hellas, became the commander in chief of a large coalition, whose war-ships gathered in Aulis, a Boeotian harbour opposite the island of Euboea, in order to sail to Troy and have Helen and the property restored, either through negotiation or by force.

Calchas' remedy against bad weather

However, the mighty fleet could not sail because of the winds, and as impatience grew in the army, the seer Calchas found the remedy to this inconvenience. He declared that they would be able to sail only if Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis, and if he did, they would also take the city of Troy, but if he did not, they would neither sail nor sack the city.

Artemis was assumed to be angry at Agamemnon because he had said, on shooting a deer, that the goddess herself could not have done it better, and also because Agamemnon's father Atreus had not sacrificed to her a certain golden lamb (see Pelopides).

Deceitful letter

Agamemnon is said to have thought of disbanding the army; for even if the ruler could accept the price, the father could not. But Menelaus, eager to be avenged and to have his own wife and property restored, persuaded him to become the murderer of his own daughter. So Agamemnon sent a deceitful letter to Clytaemnestra and their child asking them to come and join him in Aulis, where Iphigenia, he said, was going to be given in marriage to Achilles, who himself was not aware of the way the king was using his name; for the lie was only known by Agamemnon, Menelaus, Calchas and Odysseus.

Agamemnon's raison d'état

In that way, lured by the master of their own house, Clytaemnestra and Iphigenia came to Aulis, where murder, disguised as wedding, awaited the young girl. Some have said that this was a very serious dilemma that Agamemnon had to solve, for it is never easy to commit great crimes. Nevertheless the king prevailed over the father, declaring his choice thus:

"Awful it is, my wife, to dare this deed, yet awful to forbear. I must do this!" (Agamemnon to Clytaemnestra. Iphigenia in Aulis 1255)

The ships sail but the crime is remembered

Iphigenia was sacrificed and, if Calchas the seer is to be believed, the fleet could sail from Aulis to Troy thanks to that deed. But Clytaemnestra was never to forgive the loss of her daughter, and many years later, after having killed her husband, she remembered the crime that justified her own:

". . . for what Agamemnon did to my sweet flower, shoot sprung from him, Iphigenia, let him make no great boasts in the halls of Hades, since with death dealt him by the sword he has paid for what he first began." (Clytaemnestra. Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1525)

Iphigenia said to have survived the sacrifice

Iphigenia, who has also been said to have been made immortal by the goddess, was not, according to some, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytaemnestra, but of Theseus and Helen. They assert that, when Helen was restored to Sparta by the DIOSCURI, she took with her Iphigenia and gave her to Clytaemnestra to be brought up as the latter's daughter.

Humiliation of a pious man

Apollo's wrath

And since the best time to address the gods is when humans refuse to listen, Chryses ₃ prayed to Apollo so soon he found himself alone, asking the god to let the Achaeans pay with his golden arrows the tears he was shedding. That is the reason why Apollo, who is known as the bright one, on hearing the prayer and learning the outrage his priest had suffered, came down from Olympus, as they say, darker than night, letting his arrows rain on the Achaean camp, which means that an epidemic spread in the army taking many lives.

Calchas insulted and yet obeyed

As the plague was out of control, an assembly was called, in the course of which the seer Calchas declared that the reason for the pestilence was to be found in Apollo's anger, which in turn was caused by Agamemnon insulting the priest. These were bad news for the king, who first called Calchas prophet of evil. Nevertheless he accepted to give up his beautiful prize, provided another fresh prize was found to replace Chryseis ₃; and if not, he said, he would help himself to someone else's prize.

Achilles raises his voice against the king

Because of this threat, Achilles called the king shameless schemer, and accused him of always taking the lion's share and using others to pile wealth and luxuries for himself. And the king answered by letting him know that, in the same way that Apollo was robbing him of the beautiful Chryseis ₃, he was now going to pay a visit to Achilles' tent and, by taking away his sweetheart Briseis, teach him a lesson in power and kingship.

Agamemnon's art of ruling

Agamemnon kept his word: he gave up Chryseis ₃ and took instead Achilles' sweetheart Briseis. Thereby he caused the best of his warriors to nurse a wrath which, keeping him away from the battlefield, caused the Achaean army as many losses as those caused by Apollo's plague. This was the height reached by Agamemnon's art of ruling.

When Chryseis ₃ was set free, she gave birth to a son Chryses ₄, who some say was son of Apollo but others call son of Agamemnon. On a later occasion Chryses ₄, as son of Agamemnon, saved the lives of Orestes ₂ and Iphigenia in Tauris on account, they say of their family ties, for these two were also children of Agamemnon.

Agamemnon at odds with Heaven

The conflict with Achilles put Agamemnon at odds with heaven, for the former was the son of a goddess, and she obtained of Zeus the promise to teach Agamemnon and the Achaeans a lesson for the outrage her sweet son had suffered, by letting them, if only for a while, be routed by the Trojans. Agamemnon was also deceived by Zeus, who sent him false dreams carrying the message that victory was at hand and he should prepare to attack (see Oniros at Hypnos).

Agamemnon's appeasing gifts rejected

It was not before the military situation had considerably deteriorated, that Agamemnon tried to appease Achilles' wrath so that he would fight again by offering him the seven tripods, the seven women, the seven cities, and many other gifts which included Achilles' sweetheart Briseis, whom Agamemnon swore he had not touched, an oath that has never been openly questioned.

But Achilles' considered these gifts hateful, for Menelaus' brother had done to him what Paris had done to Menelaus, and it was precisely this kind of outrage the Achaeans had come to avenge:

"Why has he gathered and led here his host, this son of Atreus? Was it not for Helen's sake? Do they then alone of mortal men love their wives, these sons of Atreus? No, for he who is a true man loves his own and cherishes her, as I too loved Briseis with all my heart." (Achilles to Agamemnon's envoys. Homer, Iliad 9.340).

War without Achilles

The fight then had to be done without Achilles. Agamemnon, himself a brave man, killed many Trojans. However, in spite of all efforts, the Achaeans got the worst part and the king himself was wounded in battle by Coon, the eldest son of Antenor ₁. But when the fire reached the ships, Achilles, fearing complete defeat, sent Patroclus ₁ with a force of Myrmidons to fight. And when Hector ₁ killed Patroclus ₁ in battle, then Achilles came to life again.

Achilles puts his wrath aside

He called an assembly of all Achaeans, and in it declared that his wrath was over. As a way of expressing how much he regretted his feud with Agamemnon, he even said that he wished Briseis to have been shot down by Artemis the day he chose her when he sacked Lyrnessus, the city east of Mount Ida. For he felt that because of his refusal to fight, Patroclus ₁, whom he loved far more than Briseis, had been killed by Hector ₁.

Agamemnon blames the gods for his blindness

On hearing this, Agamemnon declared that it had been wrong to confiscate Achilles' sweetheart, but he was not to blame, for surely it was Ate who had blinded his judgement, and every man knows that she is capable of deluding Zeus himself (see Abstractions). In any case, he acknowledged that since it was him who had been blinded, he was willing to make amends and pay compensation, referring again to the seven tripods, the seven women, the seven cities, and all other gifts that he formerly had offered to Achilles.

Troy sacked

So ended the feud between Agamemnon and Achilles. Some have said that Achilles is to blame, because the reason he was there was to fight against the Trojans, and not to spend a nice time in the company of sweet girls.

Achilles never received Agamemnon's gifts, which meant nothing to him; for soon after he had killed Hector ₁, he was himself mortally wounded by Paris, who in turn was killed by Philoctetes poisoned arrow. And then, as it was the tenth year of the war, the bow and arrows of Heracles ₁ were fighting on the Achaean side, Neoptolemus had arrived, and all other conditions to take the city had been fulfilled, the WOODEN HORSE was conceived and Troy was sacked.

Agamemnon and his concubine murdered

When Troy was taken, many Trojan women were made captives, and Cassandra was awarded to Agamemnon, who brought her as a concubine to Mycenae. But on his return, he and her new concubine were murdered by Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, who had become lovers. Aegisthus became then king of Mycenae.