All 33 Uses of
Agamemnon
in
The Odyssey
- But the other gods, at home in Olympian Zeus's halls,
met for full assembly there, and among them now
the father of men and gods was first to speak,
sorely troubled, remembering handsome Aegisthus,
the man Agamemnon's son, renowned Orestes, killed.†p. 78.6
- Beware, revenge will come from Orestes, Agamemnon's son,
that day he comes of age and longs for his native land.'†p. 78.9
- The brothers harangued them, told them why they'd met:
a crisis—Menelaus urging the men to fix their minds
on the voyage home across the sea's broad back,
but it brought no joy to Agamemnon, not at all.†p. 112.0
- But half the men held back, camped on the beach,
waiting it out for Agamemnon's next commands
while our contingent embarked—
we pushed off and sailed at a fast clip
as a god smoothed out the huge troughing swells.†p. 112.4
- Some swung their rolling warships hard about—
Odysseus sailed them back, the flexible, wily king,
veering over to Agamemnon now to shore his fortunes up.†p. 112.6
- But Atreus' son Agamemnon ...you yourselves, even
in far-off Ithaca, must have heard how he returned,
how Aegisthus hatched the king's horrendous death.†p. 113.6
- Myself, I'd rather
sail through years of trouble and labor home
and see that blessed day, than hurry home
to die at my own hearth like Agamemnon,
killed by Aegisthus' cunning—by his own wife.†p. 115.1
- Nestor, son of Neleus, tell me the whole story—
how did the great king Agamemnon meet his death?†p. 115.5
- And old Nestor the noble charioteer replied:
"Gladly, my boy, I'll tell you the story first to last ...
Right you are, you guess what would have happened
if red-haired Menelaus, arriving back from Troy,
had found Aegisthus alive in Agamemnon's palace.†p. 115.8
- But there we were, camped at Troy, battling out
the long hard campaign while he at his ease at home,
in the depths of Argos, stallion-country—he lay siege
to the wife of Agamemnon, luring, enticing her with talk.†p. 116.1
- And there was a man, what's more, a bard close by,
to whom Agamemnon, setting sail for Troy,
gave strict commands to guard his wife.†p. 116.2
- Seven years he lorded over Mycenae rich in gold,
once he'd killed Agamemnon—he ground the people down.†p. 117.3
- He somehow escaped that fate; Agamemnon got away
in his beaked ships.†p. 140.8 *
- Picking the twenty best recruits from town
he packed them in ambush at one end of the house,
at the other he ordered a banquet dressed and spread
and went to welcome the conquering hero, Agamemnon,
went with team and chariot, and a mind aswarm with evil.†p. 141.5
- Back we went to the Nile swelled by the rains of Zeus,
I moored the ships and sacrificed in a splendid rite,
and once I'd slaked the wrath of the everlasting gods
I raised a mound for Agamemnon, his undying glory.†p. 143.1
- All reached out for the good things that lay at hand
and when they'd put aside desire for food and drink,
the Muse inspired the bard
to sing the famous deeds of fighting heroes-
the song whose fame had reached the skies those days:
The Strife Between Odysseus and Achilles, Peleus' Son ...
how once at the gods' lavish feast the captains clashed
in a savage war of words, while Agamemnon, lord of armies,
rejoiced at heart that Achaea's bravest men were battling so.†p. 194.1
- For this was the victory sign that Apollo prophesied
at his shrine in Pytho when Agamemnon strode across
the rocky threshold, asking the oracle for advice—
the start of the tidal waves of ruin tumbling down
on Troy's and Achaea's forces, both at once,
thanks to the will of Zeus who rules the world.†p. 194.2
- We're glad to say we're men of Atrides Agamemnon,
whose fame is the proudest thing on earth these days,
so great a city he sacked, such multitudes he killed!†p. 219.9
- Never yet have I neared Achaea, never once
set foot on native ground,
always wandering—endless hardship from that day
I first set sail with King Agamemnon bound for Troy,
the stallion-land, to fight the Trojans there.†p. 255.0
- Now then,
no sooner had Queen Persephone driven off
the ghosts of lovely women, scattering left and right,
than forward marched the shade of Atreus' son Agamemnon,
fraught with grief and flanked by all his comrades,
troops of his men-at-arms who died beside him,
who met their fate in lord Aegisthus' halls.†p. 262.1
- I wept at the sight, my heart went out to the man,
my words too, in a winging flight of pity:
'Famous Atrides, lord of men Agamemnon!†p. 262.5
- 'True, true,' Agamemnon's ghost kept pressing on,
'so even your own wife—never indulge her too far.†p. 263.9
- "God help me!" the man of intrigue broke out:
"Clearly I might have died the same ignoble death
as Agamemnon, bled white in my own house too,
if you had never revealed this to me now,
goddess, point by point.†p. 299.1
- My king among them,
he went off to the stallion-land of Troy
to fight the Trojans, save Agamemnon's honor!†p. 303.9
- You tell me he died defending Agamemnon's honor?†
p. 305.4
- Go, someone, tell Agamemnon, our field marshal—
he might rush reinforcements from the beach.'†p. 317.4
- They had grouped around Achilles' ghost, and now
the shade of Atreus' son Agamemnon marched toward them—
fraught with grief and flanked by all his comrades,
troops of his men-at-arms who died beside him,
who met their fate in lord Aegisthus' halls.†p. 469.2
- Achilles' ghost was first to greet him: "Agamemnon,
you were the one, we thought, of all our fighting princes
Zeus who loves the lightning favored most, all your days,
because you commanded such a powerful host of men
on the fields of Troy where we Achaeans suffered.†p. 469.3
- And the ghost of Atrides Agamemnon answered,
"Son of Peleus, great godlike Achilles!†p. 469.6
- Struck by the sight, the two went up to them right away
and the ghost of Atreus' son Agamemnon recognized
the noted prince Amphimedon, Melaneus' dear son
who received him once in Ithaca, at his home,
and Atrides' ghost called out to his old friend now,
"Amphimedon, what disaster brings you down to the dark world?†p. 471.7
- "Lord of men, Agamemnon,
I remember it all, your majesty, as you say,
and I will tell you, start to finish now,
the story of our death,
the brutal end contrived to take us off.†p. 472.2
- So we died,
Agamemnon ...our bodies lie untended even now,
strewn in Odysseus' palace.†p. 474.3
- Agamemnon's ghost cried out.†
p. 474.4
Definition:
Greek mythology: the king who lead the Greeks against Troy in the Trojan War