AESCHYLUS AGAMEMNON Agamemnon is the first part of the trilogy known as The Oresteia, the other two parts being The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides. The trilogy was presented in 458 B.C. and won first prize. According to the legend, in the version used by Aeschylus, Atreus tricked his brother, Thyestes, into devouring his own children, all but one. Thyestes cursed the entire house. In the next generation, Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus, were kings in Argos. Helen, wife of Menelaus, fled to Troy with Paris (Alexander). Agamemnon led the expedition to Troy and, to insure its success, sacrificed his daughter, Iphigeneia, to Artemis. Clytaemestra took as her lover Aegisthus, the only surviving son of Thyestes. Agamemnon and Clytaemestra arranged a series of beacons between Argos and Troy, by which he would signal the capture of the city.