Editing Agamemnon (section)

== Trojan War ==
{{Main|Trojan War}}

=== Sailing for Troy ===
[[File:Charles_de_La_Fosse_-_Le_sacrifice_d'Iphigénie_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg|thumb|''The Sacrifice of Iphigenia'' by [[Charles de La Fosse]]]]

Agamemnon gathers the reluctant Greek forces to sail for Troy. In order to recruit [[Odysseus]], who is feigning madness so as to not have to go to war, Agamemnon sends [[Palamedes (mythology)|Palamedes]], who threatens to kill Odysseus' infant son [[Telemachus]]. Odysseus is forced to stop acting mad in order to save his son and joined the assembled Greek forces.<ref>{{Cite web |title=APOLLODORUS, THE LIBRARY EPITOME |url=https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html#3 |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=theoi.com |publisher=Theoi Classical Texts Library |archive-date=18 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210518195824/https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html#3 |url-status=live}}</ref> Preparing to depart from [[Aulis (ancient Greece)|Aulis]], a port in [[Boeotia]], Agamemnon's army incurs the wrath of the goddess [[Artemis]], although the myths give various reasons for this. In [[Aeschylus]]' play ''[[Agamemnon (play)|Agamemnon]]'', Artemis is angry for she predicts that so many young men will die at Troy, whereas in [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Electra (Sophocles)|Electra]]'', Agamemnon has slain an animal sacred to Artemis, and subsequently boasts that he is her equal in hunting. Misfortunes, including a [[Plague (disease)|plague]] and a lack of wind, prevent the army from sailing. Finally, the prophet [[Calchas]] announces that the wrath of the goddess can only be propitiated by the sacrifice of Agamemnon's daughter [[Iphigenia]].

Classical dramatizations differ on how willing either father or daughter are to this fate; some include such trickery as claiming she was to be married to [[Achilles]], but Agamemnon does eventually sacrifice Iphigenia. Her death appeases Artemis and the Greek army set out for Troy. Several alternatives to the [[human sacrifice]] have been presented in Greek mythology. Other sources, such as ''[[Iphigenia at Aulis]]'', say that Agamemnon is prepared to kill his daughter but that Artemis accepts a deer in her place and whisks her away to Tauris in the [[Crimean Peninsula]]. However, this version is widely considered to be the work of an interpolator, and not Euripides himself.<ref>Richard Rutherford, in John Davie (tr.), Euripides: The Bacchae and Other Plays, London, [[Penguin Books]], 2005, pp. 174, 326–327.</ref> [[Hesiod]] says she became the goddess [[Hecate]].

During the war, but before the events of the ''Iliad'', Odysseus contrives a plan to get revenge on [[Palamedes (mythology)|Palamedes]] for threatening his son's life. By forging a letter from [[Priam]], king of the Trojans, and caching some gold in Palamedes' tent, Odysseus has Palamedes accused of treason and Agamemnon orders him to be stoned to death.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ovid, Metamorphoses XII-XV |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26073/26073-h/Met_XII-XV.html#bookXIII |access-date=18 May 2021 |website=gutenberg.org |archive-date=3 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220303124439/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26073/26073-h/Met_XII-XV.html#bookXIII |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== The ''Iliad'' ===
[[File:Achilles Briseis MAN Napoli Inv9105 n01.jpg|thumb|[[Achilles]]' surrender of [[Briseis]] to Agamemnon, from the [[House of the Tragic Poet]] in [[Pompeii]], fresco, 1st century AD, now in the [[Naples National Archaeological Museum]]]]

The ''[[Iliad]]'' tells the story of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles in the final year of the war. In Book One, following one of the [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaean]] army's raids, [[Chryseis]], daughter of [[Chryses (priest of Apollo)|Chryses]], one of [[Apollo]]'s priests, is taken as a war prize by Agamemnon. Chryses pleads with Agamemnon to free his daughter but meets with little success. Chryses then prays to Apollo for the safe return of his daughter. Apollo responds by unleashing a plague over the Achaean army. The prophet [[Calchas]] tells that the plague may be dispelled by returning Chryseis to her father. After bitterly berating Calchas for his painful prophecies, which first forced him to sacrifice his daughter and now to return his concubine, Agamemnon reluctantly agrees. However, Agamemnon demands a new prize from the army as compensation and seizes Achilles' prize, the beautiful captive [[Briseis]]. This creates deadly resentment between Achilles and Agamemnon, causing Achilles to withdraw from battle and refuse to fight.

Agamemnon is then visited in a dream by Zeus who tells him to rally his forces and attack the Trojans (in Book Two). After several days of fighting, including duels between Menelaus and [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]], and between [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]] and [[Hector]], the Achaeans are pushed back to the fortifications around their ships. In Book Nine, Agamemnon, having realized Achilles's importance in winning the war, sends ambassadors begging for Achilles to return, offering him riches and the hand of his daughter in marriage. Achilles refuses, only being spurred back into action when his companion [[Patroclus]] is killed in battle by Hector, eldest son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. In Book Nineteen, Agamemnon, reconciled with Achilles, gives him the offered rewards for returning to the war. Achilles sets out to turn back the Trojans and to duel with Hector. After Hector's death, Agamemnon assists Achilles in performing Patroclus' funeral in Book Twenty-three. Agamemnon volunteers for the javelin throwing contest, one of the games being held in Patroclus' honor, but his skill with the javelin is so well known that Achilles awards him the prize without contest.

Although not the equal of Achilles in bravery, Agamemnon was a representative of "kingly authority". As commander-in-chief, he summoned the princes to the council and led the army in battle. His chief fault was his overwhelming haughtiness; an over-exalted opinion of his position that led him to insult [[Chryses]] and Achilles, thereby bringing great disaster upon the Greeks.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

Agamemnon was the [[commander-in-chief]] of the Greeks during the Trojan War. During the fighting, Agamemnon killed [[Antiphus]] and fifteen other Trojan soldiers, according to one source.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''[[Fabulae]]'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#114 114] {{Webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190329161255/https://topostext.org/work/206#114 |date=29 March 2019}}.</ref> In the ''Iliad'' itself, he is shown to slaughter hundreds more in Book Eleven during his ''aristeia'', loosely translated to "day of glory", which is the most similar to Achilles' ''aristeia'' in Book Twenty-one. Even before his ''aristeia,'' Agamemnon is considered to be one of the three best warriors on the Greek side, as proven when Hector challenges any champion of the Greek side to fight him in Book Seven, and Agamemnon (along with Diomedes and Ajax the Greater) is one of the three Hector most wishes to fight out of the nine strongest Greek warriors who volunteer.

=== End of the war ===
[[File:Exekias_Suicide_d_Ajax_01.jpg|thumb|The suicide of [[Ajax the Great|Ajax]] depicted on [[Pottery of ancient Greece|Greek pottery]] by [[Exekias]], now on display at the Château-musée de [[Boulogne-sur-Mer]]]]

According to [[Sophocles]]' ''[[Ajax (play)|Ajax]],'' after Achilles had fallen in battle, Agamemnon and Menelaus award Achilles' armor to [[Odysseus]]. This angers Ajax, who feels he is now the strongest among the [[Achaeans (Homer)|Achaean]] warriors and so deserves the armor. Ajax considers killing them, but is driven to madness by [[Athena]] and instead slaughters the herdsmen and cattle that had not yet been divided as spoils of war. He then commits suicide in shame for his actions. As Ajax dies, he curses the sons of Atreus (Agamemnon and Menelaus), along with the entire Achaean army. Agamemnon and Menelaus consider leaving Ajax's body to rot, denying him a proper burial, but are convinced otherwise by Odysseus and Ajax's half-brother [[Teucer]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Sophocles - The Seven Plays |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14484/14484-h/14484-h.htm#pg041 |access-date=4 June 2021 |website=gutenberg.org |archive-date=5 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605000406/https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14484/14484-h/14484-h.htm#pg041 |url-status=live}}</ref> After the capture of Troy, [[Cassandra]], the doomed prophetess and daughter of [[Priam]], fell to Agamemnon's lot in the distribution of the prizes of war.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}