Nestor tells his story first as a warning. The great king Agamemnon returned only to bathe in his own blood. For seven years his wife had been with a lover. They slit his throat in his own bath. His son Orestes avenged him. [SPOILER: When Odysseus crosses to the dead, Agamemnon’s shade comes forward, his body shaking with silent sobs, his hands passing through Odysseus like a chill. They killed me at dinner, he says. My wife’s secret lover invited me to his table and cut my throat while I ate. My men were butchered around me like pigs. He stands unsteadily, wiping the blood and tears from his face, fingers finding no purchase on Odysseus’s shoulders. Trust no one when you return, he says. Penelope has more sense than any woman alive, but heed my lesson regardless. Come quietly. Come in disguise. Odysseus thinks of the prophet’s words about uninvited guests, and says nothing. He will come quietly. He has been warned.]
Agamemnon
King of Mycenae. Commander of the Greek army at Troy. Came home and was murdered in his own bath. Now a shade, still bleeding the betrayal.