While the myth of Agamemnon’s murder had been past down through oral traditions, it was not until Homer wrote The Odyssey that the first concrete written text about Agamemnon’s death appears. Homer mentions Agamemnon’s death throughout The Odyssey. Given Homer's extreme popularity and reputation for being the first person to write epic poetry, all of the stories within The Odyssey, including Agamemnon's death, would have been common knowledge for people living in ancient Greece. While scholars disagree on when exactly Homer was alive and writing The Odyssey, it is clear that he predates Sophocles by at least 200-300 years. However, his work was continuously performed past his death and until the fall of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, meaning those myths were still extremely present at the time of Sophocles.
Homer’s telling of Agamemnon’s death differs from the way it is portrayed in Sophocles Electra. Homer tends to place most of the blame on Aegisthus. He details how the lustful and vengeful Aegisthus seduces Clytemnestra, who initially refuses Aegisthus. There is no mention of Iphigenia or any motive Clytemnestra would have had to make her want to kill her husband. In book 11 where Odysseus goes to the underworld and sees Agamemnon, Agamemnon retells the story of his murder to Odysseus. He rants that Clytemnestra is a villainous adulteress and that women are not to be trusted. He praises Odysseus’s wife Penelope for her faithfulness. It is in this way that Homer uses the story of Clytemnestra to warn men against the evils of women and to praise women who are faithful.
Another difference between Homer and Sophocles’ telling of the story, is that Electra is not mentioned at all throughout The Odyssey. Instead, Orestes receives full credit for revenging his father’s death, a tasks he was required to do because Menelaus, Agamemnon’s brother, was away and did not know about his brother’s death. The lack of female voices and agency in Homer’s telling, may be a reflection of the male audience that would have been present for readings of his work.
Homer's The Odyssey
