Agamemnon, setting off on a campaign near Troy, promised his wife Clytemnestra to let her know immediately when Troy would fall and the bloody war would end. The servants he sent had to make fires on the mountain tops. Such a signal, transmitted from one mountain peak to another, could soon reach his palace, and Clytemnestra would have learned about the fall of the great Troy before others.
The siege of Troy lasted nine years. The last, tenth year has come, in which, as it was predicted, it was supposed to fall. Clytemnestra could now receive news every day about the fall of Troy and that her husband Agamemnon was returning. So that her husband’s return would not take her by surprise, Clytemnestra sent a slave every night to the roof of the high palace. There, without closing his eyes all night, the slave stood, his eyes fixed on the darkness of the night. And on warm summer nights, and during thunderstorms and storms, and in winter, when limbs are numb from the cold and snow is falling, a slave stood on the roof at night. Days passed after days, and the slave, obedient to the will of the queen, waited every night for the agreed signal. Clytemnestra was also waiting for him. But not in order to greet her husband with jubilation - no! She forgot him for the sake of another, for the sake of Aegisthus, and plotted the death of King Agamemnon on the day when he returned to his homeland with the glory of a winner.
It was a dark night. The east has already begun to turn a little pale. Morning was approaching. Suddenly the slave saw a bright fire on a distant mountain top. This was a long-awaited signal.
The great Troy fell; Agamemnon will return home soon. The slave rejoiced - now his painful night watch is over. He hurried to Clytemnestra and told her the good news. But was she joyful for Clytemnestra?
So that not even a shadow of suspicion would fall on her, Clytemnestra pretended that she too was happy with the news, and, calling the slaves, went to offer a grateful sacrifice to the gods. In the depths of her heart, the insidious Clytemnestra plotted the death of Agamemnon.
Residents of the city also gathered near Agamemnon’s palace. The news quickly reached them that the great Troy had finally fallen.
The elders wanted to meet Agamemnon at the court, although sometimes they were overcome by doubt that their king would really soon return. These doubts were dispelled by the arriving messenger; he announced that Agamemnon was already nearby. Clytemnestra again pretended to be delighted. She hurried to the palace as if to prepare everything for the meeting, but she was not preparing for the meeting of her husband, but for his murder.
Finally, Agamemnon himself appeared in the distance on a chariot at the head of his victorious army. Decorated with flowers and greenery, the warriors walked, and behind them they carried countless booty and many captives. Next to the king, the sad daughter of Priam sat on a chariot, telling the story of Cassandra. The people greeted the king with loud shouts. Clytemnestra also came out to meet him. She ordered that the entire path to the palace be covered with purple fabrics. Like a god, she met Agamemnon. He was even afraid that he would anger the gods if he accepted such honors. Taking off his sandals, Agamemnon went to the palace, followed by the insidious Clytemnestra, telling him how she was waiting for him, how she suffered in separation from him; but at the entrance to the palace Agamemnon’s wife stopped and exclaimed:
- Zeus! Zeus! Grant my prayer! Help me accomplish what I have in mind!
With these words, Clytemnestra entered the palace.
The citizens crowded silently outside Agamemnon's palace. A heavy foreboding of great misfortune oppressed them, and they did not disperse.
Suddenly, Agamemnon’s terrible dying cry was heard from the palace. Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon as he was leaving the bath. She threw a wide, long blanket over him, in which he became entangled, as if in a net, and could not defend himself. Clytemnestra killed her husband with three blows of her axe.
With a blood-stained ax in her hands and clothes spattered with blood, Clytemnestra came out to the people. All the citizens were horrified by her crime, but she was proud of it, as if she had accomplished a great feat. But little by little, remorse begins to take hold of her; scares her that she will have to suffer for this murder, scares her that the inexorable avenger for Agamemnon will appear.
He left the palace of Aegisthus. He had already put on the royal clothes and took the king's staff in his hand. Terrible indignation took possession of the people. They would have torn apart Aegisthus if Clytemnestra had not protected him. Little by little, the citizens, dejected by the death of Agamemnon, began to disperse. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra went to the palace, triumphant that they had seized power, having committed a great crime. But they were not destined to escape revenge, and they were threatened with cruel punishment for their crime, it was promised to them by an inexorable fate.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru