Agamemnon : eldest son of Atreus (q.v.), brother of Menelaus; king of Mycenae (q.v.) & Argos (q.v.), led the Greek armies in the Trojan War.
... were burning yet with implacable passion Felt Odysseus' strength and rose up clay to his counsels. King Agamemnon rose at his word, the wide-ruling monarch, Rose at his word the Cretan and Locrian, Thebes and Epirus, Nestor rose, the time-tired hoary chief of the Pylians. Round Agamemnon the Atreid Europe surged in her chieftains Forth from their tent on the shores of the Troad, splendid in armour... Forces that flow through us serving a Power that is secret. What in the dawning bringst thou to Troya the mighty and dateless Now in the ending of Time when the gods are weary of struggle? Sends Agamemnon challenge or courtesy, Greek, to the Trojans?" High like the northwind answered the voice of the doom from Achaia: "Trojan Deiphobus, daybreak, silence of night and the evening Page 341 ... of the fighters, Lightly the wheels leap onward chanting the anthem of Ares, Death is at work in his fields and the heart is enamoured of danger? What says Odysseus, the baffled Ithacan? what Agamemnon? Are they then weary of war who were rapid and bold and triumphant, Now that their gods are reluctant, now victory darts not from heaven Down from the clouds above Ida directing the luminous legions ...
... with disease. They had been delayed at Aulis by sickness and a windless sea; and Agamemnon had embittered Clytemnestra, and prepared his own fate, by sacrificing their daughter Iphegenia for a breeze. On the way up the coast, the Greeks had stopped here and there to replenish their supplies of food and concubines; Agamemnon had taken the fair Chryseis, Achilles the fair Briseis. A soothsayer now declares... Apollo is withholding success from the Greeks because Agamemnon has violated the daughter of Apollo's priest, Chryseis. The King restores Chryseis to her father, but, to console himself and point a tale, he compels Briseis to leave Achilles and take Chryseis' place in the royal tent. Achilles convokes a general assembly, and denounces Agamemnon with a wrath that provides the first word and recurring-theme... Priam joins Agamemnon in solemn sacrifice to the gods. Menelaus overcomes Paris, but Aphrodite snatches the lad safely away in a cloud and deposits him, miraculously powdered and Page 47 perfumed, upon his marriage bed. Helen bids him return to the fight, but he counter proposes that they "give the hour to dalliance." The lady flattered by desire, yields. (IV) Agamemnon declares Menelaus ...
... his commander-in-chief, Agamemnon. Among the women prisoners was Breseis, who had been captured during a raid on the strong cities of Thebes, together with another woman called Chryseida. Since Breseis and Achilles felt deep mutual affection he offered Chryseida to Agamemnon. The father of Chryseida was a priest of Apollo, who demanded the return of Chryseida; but Agamemnon refused the demand and... Achaean camp came to be gripped by a plague. In order to prevent this great disaster, Achilles asked Agamemnon to send Chryseida back to her father. In the end, Agamemnon was forced to let Chryseida go; however, he snatched Breseis from Achilles. Achilles was angered by this unjust act, and he spoke to Agamemnon Achilles and Hector in battle (Attic vase 490 BC) Page 19 to protest... Idomeneus. When the fleet was ready for the departure in the harbour of Aulis, the winds stopped blowing, and the ships could not move forward. It was suggested to Agamemnon to sacrifice his elder daughter, beautiful Iphigenia, but Agamemnon refused.The troops, however, revolted, and so Odysseus prepared a plan, according to which a message was sent to the Palace at Mycenae. The message was that Iphigenia ...
... to Agamemnon promising him victory. Instead, at the end of the day, and after dreadful fighting, the Trojans had driven the Greeks almost back to their ships, There was great rejoicing in Troy that night, but grief and despair in the Greek camp and Agamemnon himself was all for giving up and sailing back to Greece. His advisers though counseled him to apologize to Achilles, and Agamemnon finally... of Menelaus, king of Sparta, by Paris, prince of Troy. To avenge this deception the whole of the Achaean forces, under the commandership of Agamemnon, Menelaus' brother and king of Mycenae, had left for Troy. We are told in one of Aeschilus's play "Agamemnon” of the tragic story of Agamemnon's daughter, Iphigenia, who was to be sacrificed at Aulis, a place of strong winds and dangerous tides, where... safe crossing. For nine years victory had wavered, now to this side now to that. Then a quarrel flared between Agamemnon and Achilles, son of Peleus and the sea-goddess Thetis, and for a time it turned the tide in favor of the Trojans. Again, the reason was a woman. Agamemnon had received Chryseis, daughter of Apollo’s priest, as a price of honor, and when her father came, offering him great ...
... war by disguising him as a girl on Scyros. Discovered there by Odysseus, he came to Troy of his own free will and not as a vassal of Agamemnon. With his army of Myrmidons he took many towns in the Troad, including Lyrnessus where he captured Breseis. When Agamemnon took Breseis from him, Achilles withdrew with his warriors from the battle, but he soon returned to avenge the death of his friend... Page 109 Aetna: Mount Etna, an active volcano in northeast Sicily, beneath which the giant Enceladus was said to be buried. Agamemnon: eldest son of Atreus and brother of Menelas King of Mycenae and Argos. Agamemnon was the commander in chief of the Greek forces against Troy. On his return to Greece, he was murdered by his wife Clymnestra and her paramour Aegisthus;... choice between the two. She chose Idas. Menelaus: Younger brother of Agamemnon and husband of Helen. He was the king of Sparta, succeeding Tyndareus, Helen's foster-father, to the throne, and led the Spartan contingent against Troy. Mycenae: City in the northeast corner of the plain of Argos, ruled by Agamemnon. It was one of the chief centers of the Aegean world in the latter part ...
... Nereid, or sea nymph, Thetis. He was the bravest handsomest, and greatest warrior of the army of Agamemnon in the Trojan War. During the first nine years of the war, Achilles ravaged the country around Troy and took 12 cities. In the 10th year a quarrel with Agamemnon occurred when Achilles insisted that Agamemnon restore Chryseis, his prize of war, to her father, a priest of Apollo, so as to appease the... pestilence. An angry Agamemnon recouped his loss by depriving Achilles of his favourite slave, Briseis. Achilles refused further service, and consequently the Greeks floundered so badly that at last Achilles allowed Patroclus to impersonate him lending him his chariot and armour. Hector (the eldest son of King Priam of Troy) slew Patroclus, and Achilles, having finally reconciled with Agamemnon, obtained new ...
... insolent message to Agamemnon, and the Greek chieftains debate whether they should join Achilles in his attack on Troy or sullenly stand aside from the conflict. Menelaus feels demoralised and strikes a wholly defeatist note, some of the chieftains rail against Agamemnon and some rage against Achilles. It is left to Odysseus to show the way of prudence and calculation. Agamemnon, fallible mortal though... Phthian hero. Here, however, the outer struggle is obscurely - but none the less definitively - controlled by the cosmic purposings of the gods on Olympus. In the Iliad the "wrath" of Achilles with Agamemnon starts the action (or occasions the impasse that is the prelude to the action); in llion, the action comprises the "offer" of Achilles to Troy conveyed at dawn, its rejection in the morning by Troy's ...
... drive Achaeans against the ships that day he kept on killing, cutting them down with slashing bronze while we stood by and marveled — Achilles reined us in: no fighting for us while he raged on at Agamemnon. I am Achilles' aide, you see, one and the same good warship brought us here. I am a Myrmidon, and my father is Polyctor, and a wealthy man he is, about as old as you... He has six sons — I'm the... Achaean captain comes to visit. They keep on coming now, huddling beside me, making plans for battle — it's their duty. Page 41 But if one saw you here in the rushing dark night he'd tell Agamemnon straightaway, our good commander. Then you'd have real delay in ransoming the body. One more point. Tell me, be precise about it — how many days do you need to bury Prince Hector? I will hold back... Achilles spared your life. Now, yes, you've ransomed your dear son — for a king's ransom. But wouldn't the sons you left behind be forced to pay three times as much for you alive? What if Atrides Agamemnon learns you're here — what if the whole Achaean army learns you're here?" The old king woke in terror, roused the herald. Hermes harnessed the mules and team for both men, drove them fast through ...
... and power to that city. Achelous: river in Phyrigia (Asia Minor), east of Troy. Aegean: sea between Greece and Asia Minor. Agamemnon: eldest son of Atreus and brother of Menelaus, King of Mycenae and Argos, Agamemnon was the commander in chief of the Greek forces against Troy. On his return to Greece, he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her paramour Aegisthus;... Briseis: daughter of Briseus, a Lyrnessian from the Troad; she became Achilles' slave-concubine when he sacked her town and killed her husband. She was later taken from Achilles by his king Agamemnon. This act set off the quarrel between the two which forms the central unresolved problem in the Iliad. Cassandra: the most beautiful daughter of Priam and Hecuba;She was loved by Apollo ...
... This way bears it and that the great whirl of the wind and the scrubwood Stretches uptorn, flung forward alength by the fire's fury raging, Page 37 So beneath Atreides Agamemnon heads of the scat tered Trojans fell, and in numbers amany the horses, neck- stiffened, Rattled their vacant cars down the roadway gaps of the warfield, Missing their blameless... also a skilful enjambment, a running-over from line to line. Admirable is the effect of mobile force and volume in the second line overlapping the third in Page 38 the account of Agamemnon in the fight. Almost as fine in its own way is the note of pathos, pausing and progressing, with a suggestive burden of repetition, in the two opening lines, beautifully enjambed, of the speech of... when the gods are weary of struggle? *The sign - has been used here to show certain long vowel values which might be lost in the English transliteration. Page 67 Sends Agamemnon challenge or courtesy, Greek, to the Trojans? Even more Homeric is the reply of Talthybius: High like the northwind answered the voice of the doom from Achaia: "Trojan Deiphobus ...
... shall miss the final touch of his oceanic verse. One of his most famous lines comes at almost the beginning of the Iliad. Agamemnon has captured Chryseis, the daughter of the high-priest of Apollo. The high-priest approaches him and pleads for the return of his daughter. Agamemnon insolently refuses to hand her over. Then the old man goes home along the Trojan beach, and Homer has the line: Be d'akeon ...
... at the hands of Achilles. Sri Aurobindo's Ilion covers the events of a single day, the last day of the doomed city of Troy. In Homer's Iliad, the action begins with the wrath of Achilles with Agamemnon. In Sri Aurobindo's Ilion, the action begins with the proposal of Achilles to Troy conveyed at the dawn by a messenger, "carrying Fate in his helpless hands and the doom of an empire." Eight books... Herald, we find the old Talthybius carrying the message of Achilles, a message of peace and love and justice, the message that is sent to the leaders of Troy directly, "not as his vassal who leads, Agamemnon, the Argive, But as a ruler in Hellas, ... king of my nations." For he knows that the mighty is mightiest when he is alone, and when the strength within him is accompanied by the supreme strength ...
... Forces that flow through us serving a Power that is secret. What in the dawning bringst thou to Troya the mighty and dateless Now in the ending of Time when the gods are weary of struggle? Sends Agamemnon challenge or courtesy, Greek, to the Trojans?" High like the northwind answered the voice of the doom from Achaia: "Trojan Deiphobus, daybreak, silence of night and the evening Sink and arise and ...
... law. Anything pretty, pleasant and melodious with a beautiful idea in it would serve our turn; a song of Anacreon or a plaint of Mimnermus would be as satisfying to the poetic sense as the Oedipus, Agamemnon or Odyssey, for from this point of view they might well strike us as equally and even, one might contend, more perfect in their light but exquisite unity and brevity. Pleasure, certainly, we expect ...
... whiteness and gold and delicate raiment Gliding the daughter of Heaven came to the earth that received her Glad of the tread divine and bright with her more than with sunbeams. King Agamemnon she found and smiling on Sparta's levies Page 101 Mixed unseen with the far-glinting spears of the haughty Mycenae. Then to the Mighty who tranquil abode and august in his ...
... example was the Theben trilogy of Sophocles based on the story of the Theben king, Oedipus, and his daughter Antigone, or else, the Orestenian trilogy of Aeschylus dealing with the story of king Agamemnon and his son Orestes – Orestes was the Hamlet of Greek tragedy. The fourth piece in a tetralogy used to be something amusing, like a farce that rounded off the main programme in a Yatra performance ...
... root in the Greek ἀϒαθóς, agathos , good, meaning originally, strong, noble, brave; ἄϒαν, agan, excessively; ἄϒω, ago, I lead; Latin, ago; ἀϒλαóς aglaos, bright; the names Ἂϒɩς, Ἀϒαμέμνων, Agis, Agamemnon, and in the Sanscrit अग्र, अगस्ति. It is interchangeable with its brother root अज् from which some of the meanings of ἄϒω are derived. It seems also to have meant to love, from the idea of embracing ...
... activity, command. All strong action or quality could be denoted by अग्, as in अग्रः, Gr. ἄχρος, topmost, first, foremost; ἄϒω, ago, I lead, act; ἀϒαθóς, good, brave; ἄϒαν, excessive; names like Agis, Agamemnon, Agamedes (cf Sanscrit अजः, अजमीढः); ἀϒλαóς, brilliant; etc. In Sanscrit the root अर् is much preferred to the guttural combination. There can be no doubt, however, that अग् in अग्निः meant strong ...
... life of the Greek. The Hindu mind was too austere and idealistic to be sufficiently sensitive to the rich poetical colouring inherent in crime and sin and overpowering passion; an Oedipus or an Agamemnon stands therefore outside the line of its creative faculty. Yet it had in revenge a power which you will perhaps think no compensation at all, but which to a certain class of minds, of whom I confess ...
... Aeneid ii. 811f). 48 Ajax expected to be awarded the arms of Achilles, which were supposed to pass, after their owner's death, to the next bravest of the Greeks; but the generals Agamemnon and Menelaus awarded them to Odysseus. Ajax, in a fit of madness, killed some cattle in mistake for the persons who had wronged him, and later, recovering his senses, was so ashamed that he killed ...
... Aeneid ii. 81 If). Ajax expected to be awarded the arms of Achilles, which were supposed to pass, after their owner's death, to the next bravest of the Greeks; but the generals Agamemnon and Menelaus I awarded them to Odysseus. Ajax, in a fit of madness, killed some cattle in mistake for the persons j who had wronged him, and later, recovering his senses, was so ashamed that he ...
... in his tent because of a 136 The Universal form of the Divine, as distinct from the Transcendent and the Individual. Page 91 wrangle between himself and Agamemnon for nothing mote than a woman! But when he heard that his great friend Patroclus had been killed by Hector, then all his wrath flared up and he went out in a mad fury to fight. So his friend had ...
... Meanwhile Achilles has learned of the rejection of his offer and decides upon instant battle. There is a parallel assembly of the Greek chieftains, and Page 54 after hearing Agamemnon, Menelaus and Odysseus, they too decide to join the fray at Achilles' side. In a short Book Achilles takes leave of his mistress, Briseis. There is also a synod of the gods on Olympus, and the ...
... (K.D.S.) For the strong-without-rage type, nothing can be better than Homer on the priest of Apollo returning with bitter thoughts after Agamemnon's refusal to give him back his captured daughter: Silent he walked by the shore of the many-rumoured Ocean - (Sri Aurobindo) ...
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