How terrible! Zeus from the very start, the thunder king has hated the race of Atreus with a vengeance - his trustiest weapon women's twisted wiles. What armies of us died for the sake of Helen... Clytemnestra schemed your death while you were worlds away!

"How terrible!
Zeus from the very start, the thunder king
has hated the race of Atreus with a vengeance –
his trustiest weapon women’s twisted wiles.
What armies of us died for the sake of Helen…
Clytemnestra schemed your death while you were worlds away!"

– Homer

The Odyssey, Book 11, lines 493-498. Odysseus sympathizes with Agamemnon on his falling victim to "women’s twisted wiles" – referring to his scheming wife Clytemnestra. Odysseus blames the hatred of Zeus for Agamemnon’s fate. He also mentions the grief and suffering caused by another trouble-making woman, Helen, with whole armies dying for her sake.

Homer Quotes