Mortal · Character in Homer’s Odyssey
Aegisthus
The usurper the gods cite
Warned by heaven itself, does it anyway; the poem's standing bad example.
Clytemnestra's lover, who murdered Agamemnon at the homecoming feast although the gods had sent Hermes himself to warn him off, and died in turn under Orestes' hand. Zeus opens the poem with his case — proof, he says, that mortals blame heaven for what their own crimes earn — and the whole Ithaca story is measured against it.
Bonds
- Aegisthus loves Clytemnestra — won her while the king fought
- Aegisthus slays Agamemnon — at the homecoming feast
- Orestes slays Aegisthus — the revenge held up to Telemachus
Appears in
- Book I Visit of Athena to Telemachus
- Book III Interview of Telemachus with Nestor
- Book IV Conference of Telemachus and Menelaus
- Book XI Visit of Odysseus to the Land of the Dead
- Book XXIV Conclusion
Scenes
- Zeus recalls Aegisthus — Book I. Zeus blames mortals via Aegisthus
- Athena counsels a voyage — Book I. Athena urges Telemachus toward Pylos, Sparta
- Fates of the Heroes — Book III. Telemachus hears murder, longs for vengeance
- A Warning on Fate — Book III. Nestor probes suitors, Athena warns
- The Full Tale of Murder — Book III. Nestor tells of Aegisthus, Menelaus’s voyage
- Fates of Ajax and Agamemnon — Book IV. Ajax drowns, Aegisthus kills Agamemnon
- Agamemnon’s Fate — Book XI. Aegisthus slays Agamemnon; wife conspires
- Achilles Meets Agamemnon — Book XXIV. Achilles greets shamefully slain Agamemnon
- Achilles’ Funeral Recalled — Book XXIV. Agamemnon recalls Achilles’s funeral games