far and wide before they saw their land again, and one who escaped such
hardships came home to find a bitter welcome. This was the chief of all
the hosts, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and Argos. He it was who had
offered his own daughter Iphigenia to appease the wrath of Diana before
the ships could sail for Troy. An ominous leave-taking was his, and
calamity was there to greet him home again.

He had entrusted the cares of the state to his cousin Aegisthus,
commending also to his protection Queen Clytemnestra with her two
remaining children, Electra and Orestes.

Now Clytemnestra was a sister of Helen of Troy, and a beautiful woman
to see; but her heart was as evil as her face was fair. No sooner had
her husband gone to the wars than she set up Aegisthus in his place, as
if there were no other king of Argos. For years this faithless pair
lived arrogantly in the face of the people, and controlled the affairs
of the kingdom. But as time went by and the child Orestes grew to be a
youth, Aegisthus feared lest the Argives should stand by their own
prince, and drive him away as an usurper. He therefore planned the
death of Orestes, and even won the consent of the queen, who was no
gentle mother! But the princess Electra, suspecting their plot,
secretly hurried her brother away to the court of King Strophius in
Phocis, and so saved his life. She was not, however, to save a second
victim.

The ten years of war went by, and the chief, Agamemnon, came home in
triumph, heralded by all the Argives, who were as exultant over the
return of their lawful king as over the fall of Troy. Into the city
came the remnant of his own men, bearing the spoils of war, and, in the
midst of a jubilant multitude, King Agamemnon sharing his chariot with