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When Agamemnon went to lead the armies of Greece against Troy in vengeance for the wrong done to his brother Menelaüs, he left both the care of his children and the rule of his wide kingdom to his wife Cly tem nes’tra. Though no protracted wanderings doubled for him, as for Ulysses, the time of his absence, the avenging fates had prepared for his home-coming a tragedy so black as to be the fitting culmination to the course of crime and horror that marked the history of his race, Ægis'thus, Agamemnon's cousin, who was at once the guilty lover and the associate in power of Clytemnestra, was a son of that Thyestes who, ignorant of what he did, had been forced by his brother Atreus to eat of the flesh of his own son, served to him at a feast. (See p. 282.) The hatred engendered by this horrible crime had been handed down from father to son, and Ægisthus only waited an opportunity to avenge his father's wrong on Atreus' son Agamemnon. Clytemnestra, too, in addition to her secret passion for Ægisthus, had other causes to wish her husband's death. Ever since that day when, under pretense of giving his daughter in marriage to Achilles, Agamemnon had summoned his wife to bring Iphigenia to Aulis and had then offered the maiden in sacrifice to Artemis, Clytemnestra had nourished fierce resentment towards her lord and with Ægisthus secretly planned his ruin.

At last the watchman, who from his high tower had watched and waited for nine long years for non. the beacon light that was to tell the fall of Troy and the return of his conquering lord, announced that the fiery signal had been passed along and Agamemnon was at hand. Preparations were made for his honorable reception, and the citizens joyfully gathered to greet him. He came accompanied by those of his followers who still survived, and bringing with him as a slave, Priam's daughter Cassandra, to whom Apollo, because he loved her, had given the gift of prophecy, and because she rejected his love, had added the curse that her prophecies should never be believed. As the king in his chariot drew up before the palace, the great doors opened, and Clytemnestra in festal robes came out to greet her lord and with feigned honor and affection led him within. The palace doors closed behind them. Then Cassandra, who had refused to leave the chariot, raised her prophetic voice in lamentation and unintelligible warning of coming tragedy. All the bloody and unnatural crimes of that house rose before her, and she saw them about to be crowned by another yet more terrible. But none could understand her warnings; only when a great cry of agony rose from within those closed doors and was repeated again and again did her meaning become plain. Insolent in her vengeance, Clytemnestra threw wide the doors and displayed the body of her husband bleeding from the wounds she had inflicted as he stepped into the bath prepared to make him ready for the feast of his home-coming. Cassandra too met death at the hand of jealous Clytemnestra.

The terrible law of retribution in those days required of a son to avenge his father, and Clytemnestra and Ægisthus, knowing this, would have slaughtered Agamemnon's little son O res’tes had not his older sister Elec’tra sent him out of the country for safe-keeping. That Electra herself might never be in a position of influence to arouse a revolt against the murderers, she was compelled to become the wife of a humble servant. She could only pray that the distant brother would return when the time came to fulfil his duty of vengeance. And when the time came and Orestes with his faithful friend Py’lades arrived, the brother and sister, meeting before their father's tomb were in full agreement about the duty before them, Ægisthus and Clytemnestra were celebrating a religious feast when Orestes came upon them, and taking them unawares, killed them both.

This revolting murder of a mother by her son, though done in accordance with the law of vengeance, brought defilement and the anger of the gods. The Eumen’i des, or Furies, the divine avengers of crime, pursued Orestes and drove him mad. He wandered from land to land, always accompanied by his faithful friend Pylades, until at the god's command he came to the land of the Taurians to obtain the sacred image of the goddess Artemis. It was to this land that Iphigenia had been carried by Artemis when she was saved by her at Aulis, and here she had lived ever since, serving as Artemis' priestess in her temple. In accordance with the barbarous custom of this country all strangers who landed on their shores were offered in sacrifice to the goddess, and it, was to Iphigenia that the duty of this sacrifice fell. When Orestes and Pylades were about to be offered up, however, they became known to the priestess, and through her extraordinary power and influence they were enabled to secure the sacred image of Artemis and escape unharmed, carrying Iphigenia with them. Even then, before Orestes could be purified of his crime, he was compelled to appear before the A re o’pa gus, the great Athenian court of justice. Here the Eumenides acted as his accusers, and though he pleaded in defense Apollo's approval of his act, the court was equally divided on the question. Athena cast the deciding vote for acquittal, the Eumenides left him, and the curse on the family of Pelops had run its course.