How do you rank murder?

When reading over the plays in class, we were trying to discuss which murder was the most evil by looking at the motives, the background, and the actual crime, but to really get an idea of the standards the Greeks had for justice we have to look at the background of what these crimes would have meant to them.  The killing of Agamemnon’s daughter is absolutely horrific; breaking the bonds of parents and children, but it was something that could be understood in the Greek culture.  After all, over and over we see the gods telling people to do something, and they do it.  They don’t question the morals of the action so much, because the responsibility is taken off of them.  The same is seen in the murder of Clytemnestra, it was absolutely horrible, but willed by the gods.  The murder of Agamemnon is different, for while Clytemnestra claimed it was his fate to be killed, we never see the gods commanding her to kill him.  Also, the way in which she chose to kill him tore down all of the honor for which he fought so hard and long for.  After all, was he remembered as the great warrior and king throughout history?  No, he’s remembered as that guy who was brutally murdered by his wife and her lover.  By killing him, Clytemnestra did not merely slay her husband, as horrible as that is, she also took away everything he had fought for and spit in his face before killing him in the most humiliating way.

P.S. Commented on Michelle's post "Bloody Cycle of Revenge."