Aeschylus' Agamemnon begins after the fall of Troy.  A beacon of light signals the defeat of Troy to all those in Argos, including Queen Clytaemnestra.  With the memory of the sacrifice of her daughter Iphigeneia still burning, Clytaemnestra does not plan to welcome King Agamemnon home in a traditional manner.

Clytaemnestra welcomes Agamemnon with a Crimson carpet upon his homecoming. Clytaemnestra decepively calls to Agamemnon "Now, my beloved one,/step from your chariot; yet let not your foot, my lord, sacker of Ilium, touch the earth...Let there spring up into the house he never hoped/to see, where Justice leads him in, a crimson path" (905-911 Lattimore trans.).

Agamemnon enters the house while Cassandra remains outside.  Clytaemnestra attempts to lure Cassandra inside as well.  Cassandra however remains mute. She then begins to call upon Apollo and laments the tragedies of the house of Atreus (who killed his brother Thyestes' children), prophesizing of Agamemnon's and her own imminent death at the hands of Clytaemnestra and Aegisthus.

Cassandra enters the palace. Agamemnon cries out as he is slaughtered by Clytaemnestra; Cassandra's death follows.  The tragedy ends as Clytaemnestra decries that Justice has been done in the name of Iphigeneia.  It is apparent however, that the killing has not ended.

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