Do you believe Clytemnestra had another option that would have been preferable to marrying Agamemnon?

Do you believe Clytemnestra had another option that would have been preferable to marrying Agamemnon after he killed Tantalus and their son? What do you think you would have done in her place?

Unless I missed something, she had no options—except suicide. Running away was doomed, and staying meant marrying Agamemnon.

I agree with Judy Gee - I think her only other option would have been suicide.

Clytemnestra's only option was to marry Agamemnon.

I suppose in theory she could have killed herself or run away—but those options were contrary to her character. She was proud of her strength and her intelligence, and she was deeply loyal to those she loved, enough to want to avenge their deaths. That was her motive to marry Agamemnon.

Clytemnestra’s life was never her own. She had responsibilities as the daughter of a king, and personal happiness was not a permanent option. This was ruthlessly shown by her father’s apparent approval of the murder of her husband and son, enabling Agamemnon to marry her. Clytemnestra was strong, intelligent and assertive, so she made the most of her situation, exerting a power not held by many queens while holding patient hate toward Agamemnon.

Personally I doubt I would have Clytemnestra’s strength of will to lead and accomplish as she did, but I admire her determination to do so.

Every one of the comments above have bits of my thoughts in them. Suicide, probably not part of Clytemnestra's character. Running away--maybe. She was strong enough, clever enough and knew the surroundings well enough that she might have been able to escape and/or hide like Aegisthus did.
She was definitely a product of Spartan culture--strong, ruthless, determined, and vengeful and determined enough to carry out vengeance.

In killing Agamemnon, she was essentially committing suicide since she probably knew Orestes would kill her to avenge the death of his father. She did have an option to NOT kill him but her fate was never a good one. The gods sure are cruel!

I agree with the other comments; she didn't have any other options.

Clytemnestra knew that when Helen accepted Menelaus's marriage proposal she changed the course of their lives. Everyone---Penelope, Castor and Pollux, especially Clytemnestra---tried to dissuade her to reject him but to no avail. Clytemnestra, however, continues to love her sister, as she passionately loves her son and daughters and those people, i.e., relatives and servants, who love and honor her, which is why I agree with my fellow readers that suicide was never an option for her to take. Yes, Clytemnestra is a strong, passionate woman, but she is also a woman of her time and place: her father Tyndareus told her a marriage with Agamemnon would benefit Sparta and as a Spartan she must marry him.

Wow, what a tough time to be a woman, even within a royal family. Her life was not her own. Trained to be a Spartan woman within the royal family, she was raised to follow her royal obligations and duty and had to marry Agamemnon.

Do you think she could have gone to the kingdom of her first husband? Would they have given her refuge and a life there? After all, she did bear an heir, even though he was killed. Tantalus said his people would accept her "precisely because she was different," and so I wonder if she could have considered this? If we stick to black and white options, then she could have only killed herself or run away, but maybe she could have left to create a new city or society in the image of her ideals. I like to play with that idea, even though it wouldn't have been realistic for a woman at the times--unless the gods and goddesses were behind her. Why not imagine it?!

No she had no other options. Her father betrayed her and gave her to Agamemnon.

I don’t think Clytemnestra had an option other than marrying Agamemnon at that time. Her father allowed him to kill her husband and child. Her mother did not comfort her. She realized her fate and vengeance grew in her until she felt safe to carry out her plans. There was no one to protect her.

As a young woman with no power, if Clytemnestra wanted to continue to live as a Spartan princess she had to obey her father and marry Agamemnon. However, when she was older and queen she was able to make her own decision to murder Agamemnon.

Clytemnestra’s life was driven by the fact that she was a king's daughter. As such, she was simply a pawn in her father's "game of power" and later of her husband's. Clytemnestra had been raised to understand and accept that her father had this power over her life.

To answer the question, in my opinion, there was no other honorable option for her beyond accepting and entering this marriage with Agamemnon. She and Agamemnon knew the marriage didn't require her to love him and that his "love" was more about the power struggle to dominant her.

She was a Spartan warrior raised on the idea of vengeance so she quietly waited until she had a way to take her revenge on Agamemnon and make him aware that it was she who was doing so.

In response to Kristenb, “Why not imagine it?” : Because this novel is a scholarly retelling of a story important to ancient Greeks and to the cultures they have influence—an interpretation of their world, and an exploration of human nature. Not a new story with a happy ending.

If I were Clytemnestra I would have done my best to kill him and commit suicide. This is myth and the characters motivations are not realistic but it is beyond me how a woman could live with and have 4 children by Agamemnon. The monster who murdered her husband and baby.