Had Enough Trivia Quiz

Answer: Theseus

Clytemnestra was the daughter of the Aetolian Princess Leda and the Spartan King Tyndareus. Leda was impregnated by Zeus in the form of a swan and she laid two eggs: Castor and Clytemnestra hatched from one, and Polydeuces and Helen from another. Zeus was the father of Helen and Polydeuces, and because of this, Polydeuces is portrayed as immortal in some versions of the myth, while Castor is a mortal. Clytemnestra also had three other sisters, Timandra, Phoebe and Philonoe.

Answer: Tantalus

The Tantalus who offended the gods fed them his son, Pelops, and was punished by being placed in a pool of water with a fruit tree; whenever he tried to drink the water or eat the fruit, they would move out of his reach. Clytemnestra's husband came from the same line; in some myths he was the son of King Thyestes of Olympia and great-grandson of the original Tantalus, while in others he was the son of Broteas and grandson of the original Tantalus.

He is thought to have married Clytemnestra while she was in her teens.

Answer: True

Agamemnon and Menelaus were the Atreidai, or sons of Atreus, whose family were cursed. Atreus had killed his brother Thyestes' sons and fed them to him. Thyestes had also fathered a son, Aegisthus, with his daughter Pelopia; Aegisthus killed Atreus and put Thyestes back on the throne of Mycenae. Agamemnon and Menelaus were exiled to Sparta, where they sought refuge with Tyndareus, and plotted to take back the throne of Mycenae. Tyndareus gave them military aid, and they killed Thyestes and retook Mycenae, while Aesgisthus went into hiding.

Tyndareus' allegiance with Agamemnon took priority over Tantalus, who was viewed as a foreigner and needed to be disposed of. Agamemnon murdered both Tantalus and his and Clytemnestra's son, with Tyndareus' approval, and Clytemnestra was forced to marry him and leave Sparta for Mycenae. This was the start of a long and unhappy relationship between them.

Answer: Aphrodite

At the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, the parents of the hero Achilles, all the gods had been invited except Eris, the goddess of discord. Eris got her own back by throwing a golden apple with 'To the Fairest' written on it into the midst of the party. Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Aphrodite and Athena. Zeus refused to judge which one was the fairest and gave the task to Paris.

The three goddesses offered Paris incentives in return for the apple. Hera promised to make him king of Europe and Asia, Athena promised him wisdom in war, and Aphrodite promised him the world's most beautiful woman. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite, who told him that the world's most beautiful woman was the Spartan princess Helen. Sources differ as to whether Paris kidnapped Helen against her will, or whether she willingly went with him and abandoned Menelaus. Unfortunately, not only did Paris earn Hera's wrath, but the kidnapping of Helen also led to the Trojan War.

Answer: Chrysothemis

According to Sophocles' 'Electra', the birth order of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon's four children is Iphigenia, then Electra, then Orestes, then Chrysothemis. She played the most minor role of the children, and, unlike Electra and Orestes, she was not involved on taking revenge on Clytemnestra for her murder of Agamemnon.

She was more passive than Electra, believing that women were weak, although she did have a brief moment of rebellion when she threw out the libations that Clytemnestra had ordered her to place on Agamemnon's grave.

Answer: Achilles

Agamemnon had previously angered Artemis by killing one of her stags, so she retaliated by making sure there was no wind. The Greek fleet was unable to sail and the soldiers were growing restless. Calchas, a seer, saw two eagles descend on a hare and kill it, and interpreted it as an omen that Agamemnon should sacrifice Iphigenia. In Euripides' 'Iphigenia at Aulis', Agamemnon sent a message to Clytemnestra, telling her to bring Iphigenia to Aulis so that she could marry Achilles, then changed his mind and had a second message sent, but Menelaus intercepted it. It was too late anyway, as Clytemnestra and Iphigenia were already en route.

Clytemnestra, Achilles, and Iphigenia later discovered that the marriage was a pretext for sacrificing Iphigenia. Both she and Clytemnestra pleaded with Agamemnon to change his mind, and Achilles also tried to rally the Greeks into stopping the sacrifice, but he was outnumbered. Iphigenia eventually consented to be sacrificed, despite Clytemnestra's protests, and begged Achilles not to throw away his life. In some versions of the myth, Artemis took pity on Iphigenia and whisked her away to Tauris, leaving a deer in her place. However, Clytemnestra was not aware of this, and hated Agamemnon even more for killing their child.

Answer: Aegisthus

Aegisthus was Agamemnon and Menelaus' cousin, and the product of incest between Thyestes and his daughter Pelopia. Pelopia abandoned Aegisthus and he was raised by shepherds before being adopted by his uncle Atreus. Thyestes had hidden his face when he raped Pelopia, and she took his sword off him and gave it to Aegisthus; when she recognised the sword as being her father's, and realised Aegisthus was the product of incest, she killed herself. Atreus sent Aegisthus to kill Thyestes in revenge, but Thyestes saw the sword and accepted Aegisthus as his son, and Aegisthus killed Atreus instead. The two then ruled Mycenae until Menelaus and Agamemnon overthrew them.

Aegisthus went into hiding after Thyestes was killed, but returned to Mycenae while Agamemnon was fighting in the Trojan War. Clytemnestra was ruling the city in his absence, and began a love affair with Aegisthus; in some versions, he seduced her, while in other versions, she fell in love with him. Both of them had motives for revenge; Clytemnestra wanted to avenge Iphigenia's death, while Aegisthus wanted to take back the throne of Mycenae and avenge his father. (Aerope was Atreus' wife, Pylades was a friend of Orestes, and Aletes was Aegisthus' son, murdered by Orestes.)

Answer: Cassandra

Cassandra was one of the daughters of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy, along with Polyxena, who was sacrificed by the Greeks to ensure favourable weather for the journey home, and Creusa, who escaped from Troy. (Andromache was her brother Hector's wife.) Apollo gave her the gift of prophecy, but when she rejected his advances, he cursed her to speak the truth and never be believed. She later warned the Trojans about both the downfall of Troy if Paris were to capture Helen, and Odysseus' Trojan Horse plan, but nobody believed her in either case.

During the sacking of Troy, Cassandra sought refuge in the temple of Athena, but Ajax raped her. As punishment for defiling the temple, Athena blew up Ajax's ship with a thunderbolt and when Ajax washed up on a rock, Poseidon smashed it, drowning him. Meanwhile, Agamemnon took Cassandra as a concubine; in some versions of the myth, he impregnated her with twin sons. When he returned to the palace, Clytemnestra greeted him and had a feast prepared. Cassandra had a vision that both she and Agamemnon would be murdered.

Answer: In his bath

Agamemnon went to have a bath following his return, and although there are different versions and interpretations of his murder, the most commonly known one is from Aeschylus. Clytemnestra threw a net over Agamemnon while he was in the bath, trapping him, and stabbed him to death. In other versions, Aegisthus helped her. Depending on the version of the myth, either Aegisthus or Clytemnestra also killed Cassandra and her children; while some versions have Clytemnestra being jealous of Cassandra, others have her seeing Cassandra as a threat and fearing that Agamemnon would abandon his original family for her.

Aegisthus then became king of Mycenae, and he and Clytemnestra ruled together for seven years. In some versions of the myth, they had three children together: a son, Aletes, and two daughters, Erigone and Helen, the latter named after her aunt.

Answer: Athena

Sources differ on whether Orestes was when Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon; in some versions of the myth, he was staying with relatives in Athens, while in Pindar's version, either Electra or his nurse helped him escape to Mount Parnassus. Electra stayed in the palace and was often depicted as having a bad relationship with her stepfather. When Orestes returned after being ordered to avenge Agamemnon's death by Apollo via the Oracle of Delphi, Electra encouraged him and he killed both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, as well as their children Helen and Aletes in some versions. Before she died, Clytemnestra cursed Orestes to be hounded by the Furies.

Orestes was driven mad by the Furies and went to Athens, where he begged to be put on trial. Athena acted as judge and acquitted him, and ordered the Furies to leave him alone, although in some versions of the myth, three continued to pursue him. In some versions, Apollo also ordered Orestes to go to Tauris and get a statue of Artemis back; when he and his friend Pylades went there, they were arrested and sentenced to be sacrificed to Artemis, but the priestess of Artemis turned out to be Iphigenia and helped them return the statue. Orestes later married his cousin Hermione, daughter of Helen, and became king of Mycenae, while Pylades married Electra.