Abstract

This article proposes a fresh reading of a difficult and much-debated passage in Clytemnestra’s speech of triumph in the Agamemnon (1372–98). I argue that in lines 1395–6 Clytemnestra does not speak about herself as pouring a libation, as is generally assumed, but envisages instead the dead body of her murdered husband as the performer of this ritual. This reading, which is based on an overlooked syntactical option, avoids several inconsistencies of previous interpretations and neatly fits into the development of thought and imagery in the speech. It shows how Clytemnestra’s exultation over the corpse of her husband forms a series of closely connected cynical re-interpretations of the murderous blood.