Agamemnon and Clytemnestra
Mask of Agamemnon, found in grave circle A, made of gold, the mask's measurements are 12 in/35 cm. The mask was found by Heinrich Schliemann at grace circle A in Mycenae, and is part of a collection of seven golden funeral masks. (Kohl, Brown University)
Christina Hart
The Mask of Agamemnon is a mask made out of a gold leaflet with the imprinted face of a wealthy man, most likely a ruler of Mycenae. This mask is one of the most detailed and includes distinct features such as ears and facial hair. The golden mask of Agamemnon represents the story of a wealthy ruler with great triumphs and prosperity during the Bronze Age, but also the consequences of being a prideful ruler.
Agamemnon was a very well known Greek hero, most remarkably known for leading the Greeks against the Trojans in the Trojan war, and for his rule of Mycenae. He however was not always known as the most gracious ruler and was often called selfish and cruel. Although Agamemnon faced conflict with many Greek gods and heroes such as Achilles, one he most prominently angered was the Greek goddess Artemis. The Greek goddess Artemis was the goddess of wildlife and untouched nature, and often had no issue seeking vengeance on those who dishonored her (Morford et al. 227).
The myth, as told in The Odyssey, states that Agamemnon had arrogantly and boastfully killed one of Artemis’ stags. As a result, she became angered and played a role in the postponement of the Greek’s advance on the Trojans. Artemis prevented the wind from reaching the boats of the Greeks and left them unable to move towards Troy (Morford et al. 441). The myth diverges into two different endings, but both involve Agamemnon offering up his daughter, Iphigenia, as a sacrifice to persuade Artemis to allow the Greeks to continue their journey. In some myths Artemis takes pity on Iphigenia and saves her at the last minute, and in other myths Agammemnon kills his daughter. Unknowingly, this act of offering his daughter as a sacrifice would be the catalyst for his future demise. Clytemnestra was outraged with Agamemnon for sacrificing Iphigenia, and while he was away she took up another lover, Aegithus. When Agamemnon returned, Clytemnestra and Aegithus worked together and killed Agamemnon at the banquet celebrating his return.
According to an article by the MET, the golden mask of Agamemnon is one of the seven golden burial masks found in tombs around Mycena, frequently called the “death masks of Mycenae”. These masks were created for the highest nobility and wealthy at their funerals. This mask is the most detailed of all the death masks and is a key artifact in demonstrating the wealth of the Greek Bronze Age. However, although the mask was originally believed to be made for the Mycenean king Agamemnon, when it was properly dated, it was found that the mask was made a few hundred years before the time of Agammemnon and the Trojan War.
The mask is still important as it provides strong symbolism for Agamemnon and his story in Greek myth. Many historians still refer to the golden death mask as the mask of Agamemnon, since like the mask, Agammemnon also represents the prosperous wealth of the Bronze Age. This mask may have been that of another Mycenaean king, but Agammemnon was likely buried in a similar manner, surrounded by treasures and symbols of wealth.
Colm Tóibín, House of Names, 2017, Penguin Random House and Viking Press Publication House, cover of House of Names novel depicted a crack marble hand statue
Ankita Menon
How far would you go to ensure success in battle? For Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae, nothing was too extreme – even sacrificing his own daughter in the name of victory. This act is what set in motion numerous other tragic events for the royal family of Mycenae, the story that author Colm Tóibín adapts into his 2017 novel “House of Names”. While Tóibín does a fantastic job of reworking the tale of the Mycenaean royal family in a way that is both engaging and true to the myth, he does take certain liberties with his portrayal of Clytemnestra and specifically, her psyche.
King Agamemnon had set out with his fleet to fight in the great Trojan War when he accidentally killed one of Artemis’ sacred stags on his way to Troy, causing Artemis to turn her wrath on him in the form of unfavorable weather. In order to win Artemis’ favor back and appease the horrible winds she was sending to his fleet, Agamemnon brought his daughter, Iphigenia, and sacrificed her to Artemis (Morford et al. 484). This horrific act turned Agamemnon’s wife, Queen Clytemnestra, against her husband and she eventually murders Agamemnon (and his prisoner from Troy, Princess Cassandra) with the aid of her lover Aegisthus (Morford et al. 441). Clytemnestra presents the dead bodies of Agamemnon and Cassandra outside her palace, giving a speech evoking imagery of her being renewed as Mother Earth using her dead husband’s blood as rain (Morford et al. 442). Thus ends the tragic marriage of this husband and wife, a story marked by horror, tragedy, and vengeance.
This is essentially the same version of the myth that Colm Tóibín presents in his novel – however, Tóibín’s Clytemnestra is a woman portrayed to be driven nearly mad by her thirst for revenge. In the novel, Clytemnestra says that the experience of her daughter’s death and her need for revenge by killing her husband has “has put life into my eyes, eyes that grew dull with waiting, but are not dull now, eyes that are alive with brightness” (Tóibín 3), ascribing a mad quality to her reaction to death of her family. Scholar Mayron Lucuara writes in her article “Clytemnestra Returns: A Philosophical Inquiry into her Moral Identity in Colm Tóibín’s House of Names'' that “Clytemnestra ends up developing some kind of thanatophilia that leads her to view death as an aesthetic or poetic fact” (Lucuara 51). In Tóibín’s novel, Clytemnestra is so blinded by rage and need for retribution that the act of death, and specifically, the act of killing, becomes something that is beautiful and almost erotic to her, an element of her psyche that is not explored or mentioned in the original myth.
For reference, scholar Florence Anderson writes about Clytemnestra as originally portrayed in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon that “she rests her defense on the outrage to her maternal feelings in the sacrifice of Iphigenia by Agamemnon” (Anderson 142). Compare this to Tóibín’s Clytemnestra, who believes that “murder makes us ravenous, fills the soul with satisfaction that is fierce and then luscious enough to create a taste for further satisfaction” (Tóibín 3), who feels the need to kill because she is strangely drawn to the concept of death rather than merely to avenge the death of her daughter.
In order to portray Clytemnestra as a woman strangely drawn to death and blinded by her need for revenge, author Colm Tóibín takes a few liberties when describing the character of Clytemnestra and her psychology. However, he still adheres to the main plot and facts of the original myth, creating a novel that is equal parts classic, horrific, and heartbreaking.
Works Cited
Abramitis, Dorothy H. “The Mask of Agamemnon: An Example of Electroformed oooReproduction of Artworks Made by E. Gilliéron in the Early Twentieth Century.” oooMetmuseum.org, The MET, 1 June 2011, ooohttps://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/features/2011/mask-of-agamemnon.
Bohl, Mike. Mask of "Agamemnon", Brown University , 2007, oohttps://www.brown.edu/Departments/Joukowsky_Institute/courses/greekpast/4917.html.
Cartwright, Mark. “Agamemnon (Person).” World History Encyclopedia, World History ooo Encyclopedia, 18 Sept. 2018, https://www.worldhistory.org/Agamemnon_(Person)/.
Florence Mary Bennett Anderson. “The Character of Clytemnestra in the Agamemnon of Aeschylus.” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, vol. 60, [Johns Hopkins University Press, American Philological Association], 1929, pp. 136–54, https://doi.org/10.2307/282814.
Lucuara, Mayron Estefan Cantillo. "Clytemnestra Returns: A Philosophical Inquiry into her Moral Identity in Colm Toibin's House of Names." Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, vol. 42, no. S1, summer 2019, pp. 48+. Gale Academic OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A597616357/AONE?u=seat57527&sid=googleScholar&xid=20f6f848. Accessed 14 Feb. 2022.
Morford, Mark, and Michael Sham. Classical Mythology, edited by Robert J. Lenardon, 11th Edition, Oxford University Press, 2018, pp. 223–241, 437-442.