Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra or
Clytaemnestra, in ancient Greek legend, was the wife of Agamemnon, ruler of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Mycenae or Argos. In the
Oresteia by Aeschylus, she was a femme fatale, who murdered her husband, Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom he had taken as war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's
Odyssey, her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued. The name form Κλυταιμνήστρα is commonly glossed as "famed for her suitors". However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb μνάoμαι 'woo, court'. The original name form is believed to have been Κλυταιμήστρα, without the
-mn-, and the modern form with
-mn- does not occur before the middle Byzantine period. Aeschylus, in certain wordplays on her name, appears to assume an etymological link with the verb μήδoμαι, 'scheme, contrive'.