Summary

Pages 3 – 12

“I have been acquainted with the smell of death,” reads the first line of A House of Names (3). This sentence serves as a summary of sorts, telling us of what is to come in this chapter: it alludes to the “smell” of death that has been a curse on the house of Atreides (of which Agamemnon belongs) since the beginning of time; it alludes, further, to the “smell” of Agamemnon’s murder, and the later deaths which later result from that. This line is spoken by Clytemnestra — once faithful wife to Agamenon — who goes on to detail, in a series of vignettes spoken in past tense, the various events that occurred after Agamemnon sacrificed their daughter, Iphigenia, to the gods; she begins by recapitulating her vow for revenge, and ends by describing the means with which she will murder her husband...