(no subject)
.the mundane;
» Name: Lyra!
» Journal: lyrapoeia
» Contact: miss zoologist or loobification on AIM, loobie.c@hotmail.com by email
» How did you find us?: Yes.
.the myth;
» God(dess): Agamemnon.
» Reference: Oh, here we go.
» Family: {mother & father} King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope ; {spouse} Clytemnestra.
» Played By: The apparently very nom-able Joseph Fiennes.
» Human Alias: Philip Hartell.
» Human Age: 39.
» God of...: N/A.
» Flair: None.
» Flair Type: N/A.
» Fitting in: You know those private companies that lurk behind the scenes, with so many little divisions that no one’s exactly sure where they started out? They aren’t quite in the public eye, but lurk there on the edges until they either do something wrong and get on the news or go public for billions? It shouldn’t be a surprise that the former king is heading one. Appropriately named Atreidae Inc.
» Weakness: Pride. Anger. Greed. Envy, too… Let’s toss in some lust to round it out… Sloth and gluttony… Eh, we can leave those last two out. He’s got some serious problems with pride, most of all. Much like how Achilles, the man he very obviously liked least in the army, is thought to be, Agamemnon is quick to anger and often unwilling to compromise or easily forgive.
Agamemnon is a manipulator, something he likely picked up from his father and family line. He often sees people for what they can provide him, or how he can turn them one way or another to do what he doesn’t want to risk personally. This plays into his issues with his prideful, selfish streak, and leads to a certain number of poisonous interactions with people who do not take his form of manipulation lying down.
» History:
Agamemnon’s life began like any other life. You get the picture, right? A little child, young and idolizing a king of a father, a boy who took everything in and sought to live up to his fate as the next ruler of Mycenae. He loved his siblings, especially his brother, and took in his lessons with gusto. What wasn’t like any other was that he was adoring a man who had killed his nephews and fed them to their father in an act of revenge. Or that his great grandfather tried to feed his grandfather to the gods. Or that… Again, you get the picture. The entire House of Atreus has a few daddy issues, Agamemnon included.
But he was a happy kid. And soon, a happy teenager. And then… The future he’d expected since his day of birth was tossed as he learned his father had been murdered by relatives (take it up with them if you want the details.) You can expect how he reacted to having to flee his kingdom with his brother, all the way to Sparta. He was plotting his return from the moment they stepped out of the palace, you can bet on that.
Of course, what’s the story of Agamemnon without his wife? Sorely missing out on some key points, that’s what. Accounts very on the circumstances of the marriage. (He could have just married her, no frills to it. Or he could have been Menelaus’ emissary in wooing Helen and married her sister in support. Or he might have murdered her first husband, and child too possibly. Then again, why her first husband shared a name with his great grandfather isn’t really made clear either. Er.) Though if you use the take on it that is listed above, it does lead nicely into the cycle his life seems to take. The marriage wasn’t the happiest one (what do you get when you put two proud, strong people together?) but… It functioned. Somehow, it functioned.
He took back Mycenae with Menelaus and the newly gained kingdom of Sparta’s help, and that moment of return was the highlight of his life thus far. But then his damn sister in law had to ruin it, and he had to get together the men under the Oath of Tyndareus, leading the new army because… He was a proud, proud king and it was his ‘little’ brother’s cause after all.
Of course, no great epic can start without a little bit of trouble. Agamemnon’s first realization that something was definitely wrong came when no winds would blow across the sea. At all. A thousand ships, and not even a light gust. Then there were plagues. He could feel the army, the huge army he’d been proud of, start to get restless, and though he wouldn’t admit it? He got nervous, himself. Of course, this whole thing might have been his fault anyways. You know, he might have shot one of Artemis’ sacred animals and boasted about it. Or she might have been preemptively pissed about all those who would die in the war. Probably both. Oh, women.
So. Back to the dilemma. No one can figure it out until they ask this certain seer, Calchas, who proceeds to point out how pissed Artemis is, and that the only way to calm her down and set sail is to give a sacrifice. Of Agamemnon’s oldest daughter, Iphigenia. Some different myths have him displaying no hesitation, no remorse, just duty. This is fine and dandy, but allow me to instead accept those that add a touch of reality, and give the quote which I took his username from, from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (♥) which, in turn, took it from Aeschylus, I believe :
“If I must slay
The joy of my house, my daughter.
A father’s hands
Stained with dark streams flowing
From blood of a girl
Slaughtered before the altar.”
He was reluctant, and did not want to do this act, but the pressure of an entire army of warrior Greeks getting restless and dying was a stress on a leader who wasn’t always known for his great leadership skills and emotional strength. It was damned if you don’t (as the army and social demands would be let down) and damned if you do (as he would have to kill his own daughter, ‘joy of his house.’)
Now, I believe another version even has him send a letter to Clytemnestra, lying that Iphigenia was to be married to Achilles in order to have her sent to Aulis where the army was waylaid, then immediately regret the decision, overrun with guilt enough to send a second letter canceling the first, the second being intercepted and Iphigenia coming anyways. However it went, the important point is that Agamemnon had his daughter sent to Aulis, and sacrificed her himself over the altar. (As far as he knows, if you ask Euripides further.)
The winds blew friendly all the way to Troy from that moment, the goddess appeased, and the army (with several stops on the way for… army things. /cough) waged war for nine long years, which are obviously not important seeing as no one ever mentions anything that happens during this long period of time. The tenth year was the last, getting to a start with the actions that possibly best demonstrate Agamemnon’s failings as a leader. First he strangely decides to test his soldier‘s loyalty by telling them they should all just go home, he absolutely refuses to give the priest Chryses his daughter (whom he had captured as a concubine) back, basically telling him to get bent (because he likes her better than his actual wife. Mmmmyeah.) This pisses off the second of the divine Twins, and Apollo sends another plague against the Greek Army. Finally, after many good soldiers die, Achilles stands up and tells Agamemnon to stop being such a stubborn jackass leader, and to send the girl back. Thus, the central conflict of the final year, as Agamemnon had never really liked Achilles to begin with (I call it a conflict of personalities and pride) and took losing the girl he liked as a bang to his ego. He demanded Briseis, Achilles’ concubine, as payment for letting Chryseis go back home. He got her, but Achilles refused to fight under him. (Small loss, he says at first…)
The war goes badly. While Agamemnon was not one to extremely often go into battle, preferring to more often keep his own neck out of the line of easy fire, he did have a ‘Day Of Glory’ during this time, going on a long, bloody battle spree that proved he really wasn’t such a bad warrior himself, though not always listed as one of the greatest soldiers alive at the time. They keep losing, however, and this causes one of the few displays of growth in character shown during the Iliad. He is all for heading back to Greece, discouraged by the losing tide they’re on, while all his advisors beg him to put aside his stubborn streak for the good of the army. He actually… Listens to them instead of his emotions. At last. So Agamemnon sends friends to beg for Achilles to return, after swallowing his pride and dislike of the man. His offer is, unfortunately, rejected. The Greeks lose some more. Damn.
Finally: Patroclus dies, Achilles returns, Agamemnon makes a show of giving Briseis back, swearing he hadn’t as much as laid a finger on the girl. Amends are made. Troy falls shortly after, the Greeks victorious over a city now razed.
The return was much easier than the travel out, or at least it was for Agamemnon. He, out of so many ships, was one of the very few to make it through Athena’s storms without being blown off course, and he was given the best of the looted city, including Cassandra of Troy. Life was good, you know? He was glad to be home, the people glad to see him, and he was high enough on the victory to not notice the antsy, nervous faces in the midst of the crowd. This, my dears, was one of his last mistakes.
Aeschylus finishes the tale with a gruesome death, courtesy of Clytemnestra. Stabbed in the bath by a wife who he had believed was quite elated to see her husband victorious after a decade away. He was pulled away as his consciousness slipped into the bathwater, but not to the Underworld. Rather, to somewhere much stranger.
» Personality:
Yes, Agamemnon is not a nice person. He really isn’t. But what one must understand is that this doesn’t automatically place him in a permanent evil state. It’s much too easy to just take his vices and dismiss the virtues, especially if you go by the harsher myths or the most common ideas of translation from the Iliad. He shows a great devotion to his brother, and great hesitation before giving in to demands to sacrifice Iphigenia. Often, he reacts with emotion rather than sense, and gives in too easily to outer pressures. These things, along with others, create a more solid picture of a man than just an easy villain.
Born a king from the moment of his first breath, Agamemnon believes himself as such, even though he is often not the best leader offered in any particular point in time. Challenges to his authority and pride are taken as personal sleights, to be paid back in some way against the offender. He doesn’t listen easily to the advice of those around him, but around the very end of the war he began taking it better, using and respecting counsels. By the time he made it back home, he showed much more restraint and a tiny turn towards perhaps becoming a better leader over time. (… That is, before getting murdered likely set him back a few pegs on the scale.)
He understands the importance of family and social order, and actually treasures certain close members of his family very highly. This doesn’t always show in his actions, but it’s there. A subtle force behind his emotions. Similarly, loyalty is of important concern to him, one which he demonstrates himself only on certain occasions.
Agamemnon, like any man of the time (let’s be honest, here) is at the very least casually misogynistic. However, he shows a strange twist in respect for them, always changing from woman to woman. He makes no hesitation over saying how he likes other women better than his own wife, but at the same time he had never once touched Briseis, a concubine, for any reason whatsoever. The same with other men, his respect for people around him fluctuates and varies often.
A stubborn, mildly immature, often hotheaded, and somewhat cowardly guy with some good touches here and there. There. How’s that for a description of King Agamemnon?
» Sample Journal:
Ah, yes. Hm.
I could, perhaps, take this moment of your attention to complain, introducing myself through startled annoyance and confusion which you’re likely all tired of hearing from every new resident without enough sense to look through past entries or ask questions before jumping into this mess.
However, I’ll perhaps spare you all the experience. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. (Yes, I am aware of the ‘former-’ that should be placed there under these circumstances.) Pleasure to meet a few of you.
» Sample Roleplay:
“F-Fuck.” The voice that emerged from the throat of the man sitting on the floor of the Parthenon lobby sounded unfamiliar to his own ears, a harsh sound uttered as an almost-mumble.
One hand bolted out in a fist, hitting wall to stabilize himself as his quickened breathing slowed slowly down to a normal heavy breath. Eyes shot up towards the figure above him, noting the thin stature and glaring in a narrowed stare. The hand not holding his balance was run through his hair, expecting to meet dampness- or blood.
‘Where am I and where is that bitch of a…’ The words sought by the man on the floor didn’t come at first, however, and the snarl that came instead was hushed as the first murmur, the question sunken in the tone. As his heart stopped pounding to compensate for wounds that were no longer seeping blood, the rationale began kicking in, calming the nerves at last, allowing the man to take in the scenery more fully.
His life was no longer slinking away from his grasp, and he noted (with a certain dignified pleasure) that he was fully clothed, from head to toe. He steadied himself with one hand on the floor while he stood up, straightening his back and looking the man straight in the eye, adrenaline not yet fully melted and giving an angry edge to his typically haughty tone.
“I am King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and who exactly are you?”
» Name: Lyra!
» Journal: lyrapoeia
» Contact: miss zoologist or loobification on AIM, loobie.c@hotmail.com by email
» How did you find us?: Yes.
.the myth;
» God(dess): Agamemnon.
» Reference: Oh, here we go.
» Family: {mother & father} King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope ; {spouse} Clytemnestra.
» Played By: The apparently very nom-able Joseph Fiennes.
» Human Alias: Philip Hartell.
» Human Age: 39.
» God of...: N/A.
» Flair: None.
» Flair Type: N/A.
» Fitting in: You know those private companies that lurk behind the scenes, with so many little divisions that no one’s exactly sure where they started out? They aren’t quite in the public eye, but lurk there on the edges until they either do something wrong and get on the news or go public for billions? It shouldn’t be a surprise that the former king is heading one. Appropriately named Atreidae Inc.
» Weakness: Pride. Anger. Greed. Envy, too… Let’s toss in some lust to round it out… Sloth and gluttony… Eh, we can leave those last two out. He’s got some serious problems with pride, most of all. Much like how Achilles, the man he very obviously liked least in the army, is thought to be, Agamemnon is quick to anger and often unwilling to compromise or easily forgive.
Agamemnon is a manipulator, something he likely picked up from his father and family line. He often sees people for what they can provide him, or how he can turn them one way or another to do what he doesn’t want to risk personally. This plays into his issues with his prideful, selfish streak, and leads to a certain number of poisonous interactions with people who do not take his form of manipulation lying down.
» History:
Agamemnon’s life began like any other life. You get the picture, right? A little child, young and idolizing a king of a father, a boy who took everything in and sought to live up to his fate as the next ruler of Mycenae. He loved his siblings, especially his brother, and took in his lessons with gusto. What wasn’t like any other was that he was adoring a man who had killed his nephews and fed them to their father in an act of revenge. Or that his great grandfather tried to feed his grandfather to the gods. Or that… Again, you get the picture. The entire House of Atreus has a few daddy issues, Agamemnon included.
But he was a happy kid. And soon, a happy teenager. And then… The future he’d expected since his day of birth was tossed as he learned his father had been murdered by relatives (take it up with them if you want the details.) You can expect how he reacted to having to flee his kingdom with his brother, all the way to Sparta. He was plotting his return from the moment they stepped out of the palace, you can bet on that.
Of course, what’s the story of Agamemnon without his wife? Sorely missing out on some key points, that’s what. Accounts very on the circumstances of the marriage. (He could have just married her, no frills to it. Or he could have been Menelaus’ emissary in wooing Helen and married her sister in support. Or he might have murdered her first husband, and child too possibly. Then again, why her first husband shared a name with his great grandfather isn’t really made clear either. Er.) Though if you use the take on it that is listed above, it does lead nicely into the cycle his life seems to take. The marriage wasn’t the happiest one (what do you get when you put two proud, strong people together?) but… It functioned. Somehow, it functioned.
He took back Mycenae with Menelaus and the newly gained kingdom of Sparta’s help, and that moment of return was the highlight of his life thus far. But then his damn sister in law had to ruin it, and he had to get together the men under the Oath of Tyndareus, leading the new army because… He was a proud, proud king and it was his ‘little’ brother’s cause after all.
Of course, no great epic can start without a little bit of trouble. Agamemnon’s first realization that something was definitely wrong came when no winds would blow across the sea. At all. A thousand ships, and not even a light gust. Then there were plagues. He could feel the army, the huge army he’d been proud of, start to get restless, and though he wouldn’t admit it? He got nervous, himself. Of course, this whole thing might have been his fault anyways. You know, he might have shot one of Artemis’ sacred animals and boasted about it. Or she might have been preemptively pissed about all those who would die in the war. Probably both. Oh, women.
So. Back to the dilemma. No one can figure it out until they ask this certain seer, Calchas, who proceeds to point out how pissed Artemis is, and that the only way to calm her down and set sail is to give a sacrifice. Of Agamemnon’s oldest daughter, Iphigenia. Some different myths have him displaying no hesitation, no remorse, just duty. This is fine and dandy, but allow me to instead accept those that add a touch of reality, and give the quote which I took his username from, from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (♥) which, in turn, took it from Aeschylus, I believe :
“If I must slay
The joy of my house, my daughter.
A father’s hands
Stained with dark streams flowing
From blood of a girl
Slaughtered before the altar.”
He was reluctant, and did not want to do this act, but the pressure of an entire army of warrior Greeks getting restless and dying was a stress on a leader who wasn’t always known for his great leadership skills and emotional strength. It was damned if you don’t (as the army and social demands would be let down) and damned if you do (as he would have to kill his own daughter, ‘joy of his house.’)
Now, I believe another version even has him send a letter to Clytemnestra, lying that Iphigenia was to be married to Achilles in order to have her sent to Aulis where the army was waylaid, then immediately regret the decision, overrun with guilt enough to send a second letter canceling the first, the second being intercepted and Iphigenia coming anyways. However it went, the important point is that Agamemnon had his daughter sent to Aulis, and sacrificed her himself over the altar. (As far as he knows, if you ask Euripides further.)
The winds blew friendly all the way to Troy from that moment, the goddess appeased, and the army (with several stops on the way for… army things. /cough) waged war for nine long years, which are obviously not important seeing as no one ever mentions anything that happens during this long period of time. The tenth year was the last, getting to a start with the actions that possibly best demonstrate Agamemnon’s failings as a leader. First he strangely decides to test his soldier‘s loyalty by telling them they should all just go home, he absolutely refuses to give the priest Chryses his daughter (whom he had captured as a concubine) back, basically telling him to get bent (because he likes her better than his actual wife. Mmmmyeah.) This pisses off the second of the divine Twins, and Apollo sends another plague against the Greek Army. Finally, after many good soldiers die, Achilles stands up and tells Agamemnon to stop being such a stubborn jackass leader, and to send the girl back. Thus, the central conflict of the final year, as Agamemnon had never really liked Achilles to begin with (I call it a conflict of personalities and pride) and took losing the girl he liked as a bang to his ego. He demanded Briseis, Achilles’ concubine, as payment for letting Chryseis go back home. He got her, but Achilles refused to fight under him. (Small loss, he says at first…)
The war goes badly. While Agamemnon was not one to extremely often go into battle, preferring to more often keep his own neck out of the line of easy fire, he did have a ‘Day Of Glory’ during this time, going on a long, bloody battle spree that proved he really wasn’t such a bad warrior himself, though not always listed as one of the greatest soldiers alive at the time. They keep losing, however, and this causes one of the few displays of growth in character shown during the Iliad. He is all for heading back to Greece, discouraged by the losing tide they’re on, while all his advisors beg him to put aside his stubborn streak for the good of the army. He actually… Listens to them instead of his emotions. At last. So Agamemnon sends friends to beg for Achilles to return, after swallowing his pride and dislike of the man. His offer is, unfortunately, rejected. The Greeks lose some more. Damn.
Finally: Patroclus dies, Achilles returns, Agamemnon makes a show of giving Briseis back, swearing he hadn’t as much as laid a finger on the girl. Amends are made. Troy falls shortly after, the Greeks victorious over a city now razed.
The return was much easier than the travel out, or at least it was for Agamemnon. He, out of so many ships, was one of the very few to make it through Athena’s storms without being blown off course, and he was given the best of the looted city, including Cassandra of Troy. Life was good, you know? He was glad to be home, the people glad to see him, and he was high enough on the victory to not notice the antsy, nervous faces in the midst of the crowd. This, my dears, was one of his last mistakes.
Aeschylus finishes the tale with a gruesome death, courtesy of Clytemnestra. Stabbed in the bath by a wife who he had believed was quite elated to see her husband victorious after a decade away. He was pulled away as his consciousness slipped into the bathwater, but not to the Underworld. Rather, to somewhere much stranger.
» Personality:
Yes, Agamemnon is not a nice person. He really isn’t. But what one must understand is that this doesn’t automatically place him in a permanent evil state. It’s much too easy to just take his vices and dismiss the virtues, especially if you go by the harsher myths or the most common ideas of translation from the Iliad. He shows a great devotion to his brother, and great hesitation before giving in to demands to sacrifice Iphigenia. Often, he reacts with emotion rather than sense, and gives in too easily to outer pressures. These things, along with others, create a more solid picture of a man than just an easy villain.
Born a king from the moment of his first breath, Agamemnon believes himself as such, even though he is often not the best leader offered in any particular point in time. Challenges to his authority and pride are taken as personal sleights, to be paid back in some way against the offender. He doesn’t listen easily to the advice of those around him, but around the very end of the war he began taking it better, using and respecting counsels. By the time he made it back home, he showed much more restraint and a tiny turn towards perhaps becoming a better leader over time. (… That is, before getting murdered likely set him back a few pegs on the scale.)
He understands the importance of family and social order, and actually treasures certain close members of his family very highly. This doesn’t always show in his actions, but it’s there. A subtle force behind his emotions. Similarly, loyalty is of important concern to him, one which he demonstrates himself only on certain occasions.
Agamemnon, like any man of the time (let’s be honest, here) is at the very least casually misogynistic. However, he shows a strange twist in respect for them, always changing from woman to woman. He makes no hesitation over saying how he likes other women better than his own wife, but at the same time he had never once touched Briseis, a concubine, for any reason whatsoever. The same with other men, his respect for people around him fluctuates and varies often.
A stubborn, mildly immature, often hotheaded, and somewhat cowardly guy with some good touches here and there. There. How’s that for a description of King Agamemnon?
» Sample Journal:
Ah, yes. Hm.
I could, perhaps, take this moment of your attention to complain, introducing myself through startled annoyance and confusion which you’re likely all tired of hearing from every new resident without enough sense to look through past entries or ask questions before jumping into this mess.
However, I’ll perhaps spare you all the experience. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. (Yes, I am aware of the ‘former-’ that should be placed there under these circumstances.) Pleasure to meet a few of you.
» Sample Roleplay:
“F-Fuck.” The voice that emerged from the throat of the man sitting on the floor of the Parthenon lobby sounded unfamiliar to his own ears, a harsh sound uttered as an almost-mumble.
One hand bolted out in a fist, hitting wall to stabilize himself as his quickened breathing slowed slowly down to a normal heavy breath. Eyes shot up towards the figure above him, noting the thin stature and glaring in a narrowed stare. The hand not holding his balance was run through his hair, expecting to meet dampness- or blood.
‘Where am I and where is that bitch of a…’ The words sought by the man on the floor didn’t come at first, however, and the snarl that came instead was hushed as the first murmur, the question sunken in the tone. As his heart stopped pounding to compensate for wounds that were no longer seeping blood, the rationale began kicking in, calming the nerves at last, allowing the man to take in the scenery more fully.
His life was no longer slinking away from his grasp, and he noted (with a certain dignified pleasure) that he was fully clothed, from head to toe. He steadied himself with one hand on the floor while he stood up, straightening his back and looking the man straight in the eye, adrenaline not yet fully melted and giving an angry edge to his typically haughty tone.
“I am King Agamemnon of Mycenae, and who exactly are you?”