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CLITERMYSTRA. Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon, high king of Mycenae. While her husband was fighting the Trojan War, Clytemnestra took his brother Aegistus as her lover. When her husband returned with Cassandra as his concubine, Clytemnestra and Aegistus murdered them both. Jerome cites her as an evil wife, Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian) I.48 (PL 23: 280).

This story is in Jankyn's "Book of Wikked Wyves," WBP 737-739. [Agamenon: Eriphilem: Phasipha]

Clitermystra, a spelling variant influenced by pronunciation, appears in medial position, WBP 737.

R.A. Pratt, "Jankyn's Book of Wikked Wyves: Medieval Antimatrimonial Propaganda in the Universities." AnM 3 (1962): 5-27.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.
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