Atreus
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For other uses, see Atreus (disambiguation).
"Atreidai" redirects here. For the royal house in Frank Herbert's Dune universe,
see House Atreides.
Atreus
Greek mythology
Thyestes and Atreus c. 1400
Major cult center Tomb of Atreus
Eurystheus
Predecessor
Thyestes
Successor Thyestes
Agamemnon
Personal information
Parents Pelops
Hippodamia
Spouse Aerope
Children Pleisthenes
Agamemnon
Menelaus
Anaxibia
House of Atreus
Atreid Dynasty, Atreidae, Atreids, Atreidai, Atreides
Count Mycenaean Greece
ry
Found Tantalus
er
Final Tisamenus
ruler
Titles King of Mycenae and King of Sparta
Memb Tantalus, Niobe, Pelops, Atreus (the dynasty is named after
ers him), Aegisthus, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Aletes, Iphigenia, El
ectra, Orestes, Tisamenus
In Greek mythology, Atreus (/ˈeɪtriəs/ AY-tri-əs, /ˈeɪtruːs/ AY-trooss;[1] from ἀ-, "no"
and τρέω, "tremble", "fearless", Greek: Ἀτρεύς) was a king of Mycenae in
the Peloponnese, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father
of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Collectively, his descendants are known
as Atreidai or Atreidae.
Atreus and his twin brother Thyestes were exiled by their father for murdering their
half-brother Chrysippus in their desire for the throne of Olympia. They took refuge
in Mycenae, where they ascended to the throne in the absence of King Eurystheus,
who was fighting the Heracleidae. Eurystheus had meant for their stewardship to be
temporary, but it became permanent after his death in battle.
According to most ancient sources, Atreus was the father of Pleisthenes, but in some
lyric poets (Ibycus, Bacchylides) Pleisthenides (son of Pleisthenes) is used as an
alternative name for Atreus himself.
Contents
1Atreides
2The House of Atreus
o 2.1Tantalus
o 2.2Pelops and Hippodamia
o 2.3Atreus and Thyestes
o 2.4Agamemnon, Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus, Orestes and Electra
o 2.5Family tree
3Classical references
4Translations
5Hittite records controversy
6See also
7References
8General bibliography
9External links
Atreides[edit]
The word Atreides refers to one of the sons of Atreus—Agamemnon and Menelaus.
[2]
The plural form Atreidae or Atreidai refers to both sons collectively; in English,
the form Atreides (the same form as the singular) is often used. This term is
sometimes used for more distant descendants of Atreus.
The House of Atreus[edit]
Tantalus[edit]
The House of Atreus begins with Tantalus. Tantalus was the son of Zeus and
the nymph Plouto, who enjoyed cordial relations with the gods until he decided to
slay his son Pelops and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience. Most of
the gods, as they sat down to dinner with Tantalus, immediately understood what had
happened, and, because they knew the nature of the meat they were served, were
appalled and did not partake. But Demeter, who was distracted due to the abduction
by Hades of her daughter Persephone, obliviously ate Pelops' shoulder. The gods
threw Tantalus into the underworld, where he spends eternity standing in a pool of
water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reaches for the fruit, the
branches raise his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bends down to get a
drink, the water recedes before he can drink. Thus is derived the word "tantalising" in
English. The gods brought Pelops back to life, replacing the bone in his shoulder with
a bit of ivory with the help of Hephaestus, thus marking the family forever afterwards.
Pelops and Hippodamia[edit]
Pelops
Pelops married Hippodamia after winning a chariot race against her father,
King Oenomaus, by arranging for the sabotage of his would-be-father-in-law's chariot
which resulted in his death. The versions of the story differ. The sabotage was
arranged by Myrtilus, a servant of the king who was killed by Pelops for one of three
reasons: 1) because he had been promised the right to take Hippodamia's virginity,
which Pelops retracted; 2) because he attempted to rape her, or; 3) because Pelops did
not wish to share the credit for the victory. As Myrtilus died, he cursed Pelops and his
line, further adding to the house's curse.
Atreus and Thyestes
Atreus and Thyestes[edit]
Entrance to the tholos known as the "Treasury of Atreus", built around 1250 BC.
Pelops and Hippodamia had many sons; two of them were Atreus and Thyestes.
Depending on myth versions, they murdered Chrysippus, who was their half-brother.
Because of the murder, Hippodamia, Atreus, and Thyestes were banished to Mycenae,
where Hippodamia is said to have hanged herself.
Atreus vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to Artemis. Upon searching his flock,
however, Atreus discovered a golden lamb which he gave to his wife, Aerope, to hide
from the goddess. She gave it to Thyestes, her lover and Atreus' brother, who then
convinced Atreus to agree that whoever had the lamb should be king. Thyestes
produced the lamb and claimed the throne.
Atreus retook the throne using advice he received from Hermes. Thyestes agreed to
give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that Zeus
accomplished. Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes.
Atreus then learned of Thyestes' and Aerope's adultery and plotted revenge. He killed
Thyestes' sons and cooked them, save their hands and feet. He tricked Thyestes into
eating the flesh of his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and feet.
Thyestes was forced into exile for eating the flesh of a human. Thyestes responded by
asking an oracle what to do, who advised him to have a son by his daughter, Pelopia,
who would then kill Atreus. However, when Aegisthus was first born, he was
abandoned by his mother, who was ashamed of the incestuous act. A shepherd found
the infant Aegisthus and gave him to Atreus, who raised him as his own son. Only as
he entered adulthood did Thyestes reveal the truth to Aegisthus, that he was both
father and grandfather to the boy. Aegisthus then killed Atreus, although not before
Atreus and Aerope had had two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, and a
daughter Anaxibia.
Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, and Menelaus married Helen, her famously
attractive sister. Helen later left Sparta with Paris of Troy, and Menelaus called on all
of his wife's former suitors to help him take her back.
Atreus and Thyestes
The Mask of Agamemnon
Agamemnon, Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus, Orestes and
Electra[edit]
The murdering of Aegisthus by Orestes and Pylades
Prior to sailing off to war against Troy, Agamemnon had angered the
goddess Artemis because he had killed a sacred deer in a sacred grove, and had then
boasted that he was a better hunter than she was. When the time came, Artemis stilled
the winds so that Agamemnon's fleet could not sail. A prophet named Calchas told
him that in order to appease Artemis, Agamemnon would have to sacrifice the most
precious thing that had come to his possession in the year he killed the sacred deer.
This was his first-born daughter, Iphigenia. He sent word home for her to come (in
some versions of the story on the pretense that she was to be married to Achilles).
Iphigenia accepted her father's choice and was honored to be a part of the war.
Clytemnestra tried to stop Iphigenia but was sent away. After doing the deed,
Agamemnon's fleet was able to get under way.
While he was fighting the Trojans, his wife Clytemnestra, enraged by the murder of
her daughter, began an affair with Aegisthus. When Agamemnon returned home he
brought with him a new concubine, the doomed prophetess, Cassandra. Upon his
arrival that evening, before the great banquet she had prepared, Clytemnestra drew a
bath for him and when he came out of the bath, she put the royal purple robe on him
which had no opening for his head. He was confused and tangled up. Clytemnestra
then stabbed him to death.
Agamemnon's only son, Orestes, was quite young when his mother killed his father.
He was sent into exile. In some versions he was sent away by Clytemnestra to avoid
having him present during the murder of Agamemnon; in others Electra herself
rescued the infant Orestes and sent him away to protect him from their mother. In
both versions he was the legitimate heir apparent and as such a potential danger to his
usurper uncle.
Goaded by his sister Electra, Orestes swore revenge. He knew it was his duty to
avenge his father's death, but saw also that in doing so he would have to kill his
mother. He was torn between avenging his father and sparing his mother. 'It was a
son's duty to kill his father's murderers, a duty that came before all others. But a son
who killed his mother was abhorrent to gods and to men'.
When he prayed to Apollo, the god advised him to kill his mother. Orestes realized
that he must work out the curse on his house, exact vengeance and pay with his own
ruin. After Orestes murdered Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, he wandered the
land with guilt in his heart. After many years, with Apollo by his side, he pleaded to
Athena. No descendant of Atreus had ever done so noble an act and 'neither he nor
any descendant of his would ever again be driven into evil by the irresistible power of
the past.' Thus Orestes ended the curse of the House of Atreus.
This story is the major plot line of Aeschylus's trilogy The Oresteia.
Family tree[edit]
hid
Tantalus
Pelops Hippodamia
Thyestes
Aegisthus Agamemnon C
Iphigeneia Electra
