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Home / People / Clytemnestra

Historical person

Clytemnestra

mythological figure

Clytemnestra was a daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, a sister of Helen, and the wife of Agamemnon in Greek myth. Traditions place her at the centre of the violence of the House of Atreus. Agamemnon’s sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia and his return from Troy with Cassandra provide motives for Clytemnestra’s alliance with Aegisthus and the murder of her husband.

Her death at the hands of Orestes and Electra continues the family’s cycle of revenge. Greek dramatists portray her variously as an adulterous usurper, a mother avenging her child and a ruler defending the authority she exercised during Agamemnon’s absence.

Mary Beard’s Women & Power begins with classical examples, including Telemachus ordering Penelope back to her room and the threatening figures of Medusa and Clytemnestra, to show how Western traditions repeatedly represent a woman’s public voice as abnormal, dangerous or laughable. In Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra, Raised as a Spartan princess alongside her sister Helen, Clytemnestra is trained to fight but expected to submit to the marriages and alliances chosen by men. Agamemnon destroys her first family and carries her to Mycenae as his queen. Further fictional perspectives on Clytemnestra can be found in Susan C Wilson’s Clytemnestra’s Bind, Henry Treece’s Electra, Euripides’ Electra and Other Plays, Euripides’ Orestes and Other Plays, and Euripides’ The Bacchae and Other Plays.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Clytemnestra (4 series)

Penguin Classics: Ancient World in Order

by various authors 32 books 4.6(13,212)

Penguin Classics: Ancient World brings together foundational works of literature, history, philosophy, drama and poetry from the earliest civilisations through classical Greece and Rome. The wider Penguin Classics series began in 1946 with E. V. Rieu’s translation of Homer’s Odyssey, reflecting its original aim of making important texts…

All books in this series

Women of Troy in Order

by Pat Barker 3 books 3.9(179,693)

The Women of Troy sequence retells the Trojan War and its aftermath from the perspectives of women enslaved, displaced and silenced by the Greek victory. Beginning with Briseis in the final weeks of the Iliad, the novels continue through the fall of Troy and the return of Agamemnon,…

All books in this series

The House of Atreus in Order

by Susan C Wilson 2 books 4.1(498)

The House of Atreus trilogy retells the dynastic violence surrounding Mycenae and the Trojan War through women traditionally judged by male-authored myth. Clytemnestra’s Bind begins with Agamemnon’s seizure of Clytemnestra and follows her attempt to protect her children inside a royal household shaped by inherited bloodshed. Helen’s Judgement…

All books in this series

Mycenaean Greek Trilogy in Order

by Henry Treece 3 books 3.6(70)

The Mycenaean Greek Trilogy retells three groups of Greek myths as violent dynastic histories. Jason follows the Argonauts and the destructive marriage of Jason and Medea. Electra examines the murder of Agamemnon and the revenge taken by his children. Oedipus reconstructs the Theban king’s rise and discovery of…

All books in this series

Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Clytemnestra (1 book)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Clytemnestra (1 book)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.