Clytemnestra

Latinized from Greek Κλυταιμνήστρα (Klytaimnestra) and Κλυταιμήστρα (Klytaimestra), this name begins with κλυτός (klytos), meaning “famous” or “noble,” while the second element is variously associated with μνηστήρ (mnester), “courter” or “wooer,” or μήδομαι (medomai), “to plan” or “to intend.” Scholars dispute which spelling is earlier or more authentic, and ancient texts appear to play on both etymologies; Klytaimestra is used by Greek tragedians such as Aeschylus, while Klytaimnestra appears in Homer. In Greek legend, Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon and the mother of Orestes and Electra; during the Trojan War she took a lover and later had Agamemnon murdered on his return, after which Orestes killed her.