Clytemnestra/Definition

Sometimes spelled Clytaimestra, she is a character from Greek mythology who was the wife of Agamemnon, mother of Orestes, half-sister of Helen of Troy, and lover of Aigisthos. She was angry when Agamemnon decides to sacrifice their daughter Iphigeneia to satisfy a requirement of Artemis based on the prophecy of seer Calchas. While Agamemnon is away at Troy during the Trojan War, she has an illicit romance with Aigisthos; when Agamemnon returns, she helps her lover murder her husband, and this sparks a continuing sequence of Greek tragedy which provided much material for tragedians. Source: Elizabeth Vandiver, Classics scholar, authority on Greek mythology and Greek tragedy, including the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Homer, and Virgil. This definition is based on her course Classical Mythology for The Teaching Company.