Agamemnon

Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and commander of the Greek forces at Troy, is one of the few men who feature strongly throughout the novel. We first meet him when he reluctantly, but brutally, sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis in order to secure a favourable wind for the Greek fleet to sail to Troy.

He spends the rest of the novel desperately trying to replace his daughter, and attempting to heal the dreadful wound he has inflicted upon himself. He claims a Trojan girl, Chryseis, as his slave girl, only to be punished by a plague sent by the goddess Apollo. Having been forced to return her to her father, he then claims Briseis, a slave belonging to Achilles and his friend Patroclus. In response, Achilles refuses to fight for the Greeks and they suffer terrible losses.

He makes a third attempt to replace his daughter...