Clytemnestra. Jane Davidson Reid's OGCMA included information about Clytemnestra in the article about Agamemnon — cf. "Agamemnon". Given Clytemnestra's prevalanece in some of the most important classical texts, she deserves independent treatment.

Clytemnestra (Klytaimnestra, Klytaimestra, and other variants), was a daughter of Leda. Strictly speaking, ancient mythographers often distinguished Clytemnestra's parentage from Helen's making the former the offspring of Tyndareus and Helen Zeus' begotten child. Clytemnestra in some versions was married before Agamemnon to his cousin Tantalus the younger. Clytemnestra bore children to Agamemnon before his involvement in the expedition to Troy. Homer knows Iphianassa (Iphigenia), Laodice, and Chrysothemis; Electra is known from Xanthus onward. Orestes is known to all ancient mythographers.

The sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis became for Clytmnestra a stumbling block in her marriage to Agamemnon. While Agamemnon was at Troy, Clytemnestra engaged an adulterous affair with Aegisthus, the malingerer and claimant to the Argive throne (for he was a son of Thyestes and cousin of Agememnon). Clytemnestra was directly involved in the murderous reception of Agamemnon and Cassandra after the war. Variables weigh in the mythological tradition's varied interpretations presenting Clytemnestra along a range from weak woman under Aegisthus' sway to frightening man-slayer.

Clytmnestra died by matricide. Some texts have her slain by the hand of Orestes, others by Electra's, or by both in concert. Homer projected Clytaemnestra as the anti-Penelope (Odyssey, passim); Aeschylus (458 BC) crafted her as the actual regent overpowering a boastful Aegisthus. Before Aeschylus Oresteia Clytemnestra seems normally to have been overlooked in iconography; after the play, artists of the classical period still rarely depict her actual death.

Further Reference: Prag, A.J.N.W. 1985. The Oresteia: iconographic and narrative tradition. Chicago: Bolchazy-Carducci.
LIMC 6/1.72-81 [Morizot].