Character: Clytemnestra
Gender: Female
Age Range(s): Adult (36-50)
Type of monologue / Character is: Scolding, Persuasive, Descriptive, Lamenting, Speech, Reminiscing life
story/Telling a story
Type: Dramatic
Period: Ancient Greek
Genre: Tragedy, Drama
Description: Clytemnestra justifies her actions
Summary The story of the play focuses on the revenge by Clytemnestra on her husband Agamemnon.
Agamemnon is the King of Argos and one of the generals in the Trojan war against Troy. Clytemnestra
awaits for the return of her husband from the war so that she can kill him for having sacrificed their
daughter Iphigenia during the war. When Agamemnon and his concubine Cassandra come back from the
war they are eventually killed by Clytmenestra with the help of her lover Aegisthus.
In this scene Clytemnestra has just killed Agamemnon and has dumped his body next to the alter. The
Chorus criticizes her actions and in this monologue she describes the murder tries to justify it.