Clytemnestra’s Family Tree

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Family

• Agamemnon(spouse),Chrysothemis(child),Electra (Argive)(child),Iphigenia(child),Orestes(child)— Marriage

  Agamemnon and Clytemnestra's children included Orestes, Iphigenia, Electra, and Chrysothemis. The family was destroyed when Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon upon his return from Troy, and Orestes later killed her in revenge.

• Leda(parent),Tyndareus(parent),Zeus(parent),Dioscuri(sibling),Helen of Troy(sibling)— Marriage

  Zeus approached Leda in the form of a swan, and on the same night she also lay with her husband Tyndareus. From this dual union came the Dioscuri, Helen, and Clytemnestra.

  ⚠ Sources disagree on which children are divine and which mortal. The most common tradition makes Helen and Polydeuces children of Zeus, while Castor and Clytemnestra are Tyndareus's. Other versions vary the combinations.

• Aegisthus(spouse),Aletes(child),Erigone Aegisthid(child)— Consort

  Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as lover and co-ruler of Mycenae during Agamemnon's decade at Troy, and together they bore Erigone Aegisthid and Aletes before conspiring to murder the king upon his return.

• Tantalus Thyestid(spouse)— Marriage

  Clytemnestra was first married to Tantalus Thyestid before Agamemnon killed him and their infant son, seizing Clytemnestra as his own bride by force.

Enemy of

• Agamemnon

  Clytemnestra harbored a decade-long vendetta against Agamemnon for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia, culminating in his murder upon his return from Troy.

• Electra (Argive)

  Electra despised her mother Clytemnestra for murdering Agamemnon and endured years of mistreatment in the palace. She kept Orestes's memory alive and helped plan the matricide.

Slain by

• Orestes

  Orestes killed his mother Clytemnestra to avenge her murder of his father Agamemnon, as commanded by Apollo at Delphi. This matricide brought the Erinyes upon him.

Slew

• Agamemnon

  Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon in his bath upon his return from Troy, entangling him in a robe and striking him with an axe, as told in Aeschylus's Agamemnon.

• Cassandra

  Clytemnestra killed the Trojan prophetess Cassandra alongside Agamemnon. Cassandra had foreseen her own murder but, cursed by Apollo, could convince no one to heed her warnings.

Associated with

• Apollo,Orestes

  Apollo at Delphi commanded Orestes to avenge Agamemnon by killing his mother Clytemnestra, then defended the matricide against the Erinyes at Athena's court on the Areopagus.

• Artemis

  Artemis stilled the winds at Aulis and demanded the sacrifice of Iphigenia as the price for the Greek fleet to sail, setting in motion Clytemnestra's decade of rage and the destruction of the House of Atreus.

• Chrysothemis

  In Sophocles's Electra, Clytemnestra sends Chrysothemis to pour libations at Agamemnon's tomb after a disturbing dream. Electra intercepts her and persuades her to replace the offerings with their own.

• Erinyes

  The Erinyes avenged Clytemnestra after Orestes killed her, pursuing him across Greece for matricide. In Aeschylus's Eumenides, Clytemnestra's ghost rises to goad the sleeping Erinyes to action.

• Iphigenia

  Clytemnestra's burning rage was born at Aulis, where Agamemnon lured Iphigenia with a false promise of marriage to Achilles and sacrificed her to Artemis so the fleet could sail for Troy.