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Atreus
View on Wikipedia| Atreidae Ἀτρείδαι Atreid dynasty | |
|---|---|
| Royal house | |
| Country | Mycenaean Greece |
| Founder | Tantalus Atreus (first ruler) |
| Final ruler | Tisamenus |
| Seat | Mycenae |
| Titles | King of Mycenae |
| Members | Tantalus, Niobe, Pelops, Atreus (eponym), Thyestes, Aegisthus, Menelaus, Agamemnon, Aletes, Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes, Tisamenus |
In Greek mythology, Atreus[a] (Ancient Greek: Ἀτρεύς, [a.trěu̯s] lit. 'fearless')[b] was a king of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. His descendants became known collectively as the Atreidae (Ancient Greek: Ἀτρείδαι Atreidai).
Atreus and his 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, which ended the rule of the Perseid dynasty in Mycenae.
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.
Nomenclature
[edit]'Atreides' (Ἀτρείδης) is a patronymic form of Atreus which refers to one of his sons—Agamemnon or Menelaus.[2] The plural forms, deriving from the Latin Atreidae, itself from Ancient Greek 'Atreidai' (Ἀτρεῖδαι), refer to both sons collectively. 'Atreides' is commonly used to translate both the singular and plural form to English. The term can also be used for the more distant descendants of Atreus, also known as the 'House of Atreus' or the 'Atreid dynasty'. It has been suggested that the name Attarsiya, belonging to an Ahhiyawan king of 1400 BC, may be the Hittite rendition of the Greek name.[3][4]
The House of Atreus
[edit]Tantalus
[edit]The 'House of Atreus' begins with Tantalus. Tantalus, the son of Zeus and the maiden Pluto, 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's shoulder. The gods threw Tantalus into the underworld to spend 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 "tantalizing" 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 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, at which point the story diverges into multiple versions. 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
[edit]
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 persuaded 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 Zeus, who sent Hermes to him, advising him to make Thyestes agree that if the sun rose in the west and set in the east, the throne of the kingdom should be given back to Atreus. Thyestes agreed, but then Helios did exactly that, rising where he usually set and setting where he usually rose, not standing the injustice of Thyestes' usurpation.[5] The people then bowed to the man who had managed to reverse the circuit of the Sun.[6]
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.[c] Thyestes was forced into exile for eating human flesh. 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 their son 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 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.
Agamemnon, Iphigenia, Clytemnestra, Aegisthus, Orestes and Electra
[edit]
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 his sister 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
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Classical references
[edit]Plato in his dialogue The Statesman tells a "famous tale" that "the sun and the stars once rose in the west, and set in the east, and that the god reversed their motion, and gave them that which they now have as a testimony to the right of Atreus."[8] Virgil, in book IV of the Aeneid, refers to the House of Atreus and specifically Orestes in describing the death of Dido.[9]
Hittite records
[edit]There is a possible reference to Atreus in a Hittite text known as the "Indictment of Madduwatta". The indictment describes several army clashes between the Greeks and the Hittites which took place around the late 15th or early 14th centuries BC. The Greek leader was a man called Attarsiya, and some scholars have speculated that Attarsiya or Attarissiya was the Hittite way of writing the Greek name Atreus.[10][11] Other scholars argue that even though the name is probably Greek (since the man is described as an Ahhiyawa) and related to Atreus, the person carrying the name is not necessarily identical to the famous Atreus.[12]
See also
[edit]- Child cannibalism
- House Atreides, a fictional Great House in Frank Herbert's Dune who claim to be descendants of this line[13]
- Treasury of Atreus
Notes
[edit]- ^ /ˈeɪtriəs/ AY-tri-əs, /ˈeɪtruːs/ AY-trooss;[1]
- ^ From privative ἀ- (a-), "no, not" and τρέω (treō), "to tremble"
- ^ This story can be found in The Libation Bearers, the second play of Aeschylus's Oresteia.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ "Atreus". Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
- ^ The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Atreus". Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 21 June 2018.
- ^ Bryce, Trevor (1999). The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 402. ISBN 978-0-19-924010-4.
- ^ Strauss, Barry (2007). The Trojan War: A New History. New York: Simon and Schuster. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-7432-6442-6.
- ^ Apollodorus E.2.12; Tzetzes, Chiliades 1.18.30
- ^ Sophocles frag 738 [=Achilles Tatius, Introduction to Aratus 1].
- ^ Aeschylus (1998). Meineck, Peter; Foley, Helene P. (eds.). Oresteia. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett. ISBN 978-0-87220-391-4.
- ^ "Plato, The Statesman". Classics.mit.edu. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
- ^ Kline, A. S.
- ^ Bryce, Trevor R., "The Trojan War: Is There Truth Behind the Legend?", Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 65, No. 3. (Sep. 2002), p. 193. doi:10.2307/3210883. JSTOR 3210883.
- ^ R. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 158.
- ^ M. L. West, "Atreus and Attarissiyas", Glotta, vol. 77 (2004), pp. 262–266. JSTOR 40267129. He suggests that Atreus is a secondary form based on the patronymic Atreïdēs, which is in turn derived from the Mycenaean *Atrehiās.
- ^ Herbert, Frank (2019). God Emperor of Dune (Ace premium ed.). New York: ACE/Berkley. p. 17. ISBN 9780593098257.
Bibliography
[edit]
- Burkert, Walter (1972). Homo Necans. pp. 103–108.
- Carrara, Laura; Ferri, Rolando; Medda, Enrico (2023). Il mito degli Atridi dal teatro antico all'epoca contemporanea. Venice: Edizioni Ca'Foscari. ISBN 978-88-6969-736-4.
- Euripides. Electra.
- Pseudo-Apollodorus. Bibliotheca, Epitome II, 10–16.
- Sophocles. Fragments. Edited and translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Loeb Classical Library 483. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996.
External links
[edit]
Atreus
View on GrokipediaIdentity and Etymology
Name Origins
The name Atreus (Ancient Greek: Ἀτρεύς) derives etymologically from the privative prefix ἀ- (a-), meaning "not" or "without," combined with the verb τρέω (treō), which signifies "to fear," "to tremble," or "to flee," yielding the interpretation "fearless" or "without fear." This derivation is attested in ancient Greek linguistic traditions and has been affirmed by classical scholars analyzing the morphological structure of heroic names in epic poetry.[6] In ancient literary sources, the name appears consistently as Ἀτρεύς, with minor phonetic variations in dialectal inscriptions or later manuscripts, such as Atreus in Latin transcriptions. The patronymic form Ἀτρεΐδης (Atreidēs), meaning "son of Atreus," is prominently featured in Homeric epics, where it refers to descendants like Agamemnon and Menelaus, emphasizing lineage rather than the individual bearer. These variants reflect standard Attic and Ionic Greek orthography, with no significant deviations in primary texts from the Archaic period.[7][8] Comparative linguistics highlights potential Indo-European parallels, particularly with the Hittite name Attaršiya (or Attarissiyas), attested in Late Bronze Age cuneiform tablets as a ruler associated with the Ahhiyawa, a term linked to Mycenaean Greeks. Scholars propose this as a cognate or adapted form, indicating possible Anatolian influences on early Greek nomenclature within the broader Indo-European family, though the exact phonological evolution remains debated.[9]Interpretations in Scholarship
In the 19th century, archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann's excavations at Mycenae exemplified euhemeristic interpretations, positing that figures like Atreus and his descendants represented deified Bronze Age rulers whose tombs he uncovered in Grave Circle A, though later dating placed these burials centuries earlier than the legendary Atreid dynasty.[10] This view aligned with broader 19th-century theories that Greek myths preserved historical memories of Mycenaean kings, transforming legendary narratives into accounts of real monarchs elevated to heroic status through oral tradition.[11] The decipherment of Linear B tablets in 1952 reinforced 20th-century scholarship linking Atreus to Bronze Age royalty, as the administrative records revealed a palatial system of wanakes (kings) at Mycenae consistent with the hierarchical world of the House of Atreus, though no tablet directly names him.[12] Martin P. Nilsson, in his seminal 1932 work, argued that the Atreid cycle originated in Mycenaean cult practices and social structures, viewing Atreus as a euhemerized figure whose rivalry and kingship reflected actual Bronze Age power struggles rather than pure invention.[13] Debates persisted on euhemerism, with some scholars like Nilsson emphasizing distorted historical kernels—Atreus as a deified Mycenaean wanax—while others cautioned against over-literal readings, seeing the myths as composite folk memories amplified by later poets.[14] Post-2000 analyses have integrated archaeology with textual evidence, connecting Atreus to Late Bronze Age rulers through Hittite records mentioning Attarissiyas, a 14th-century king of Ahhiyawa (Mycenaean Greece), whose name linguistically parallels Atreus and suggests a historical prototype for the mythic king. In 2025, a newly deciphered Hittite tablet from Boğazköy references attacks on Taruiša (Troy) by the sons of Attaršiya of Ahhiyawa, interpreted by some as echoing the Trojan War campaigns of Atreus's sons Agamemnon and Menelaus, further supporting potential historical prototypes for the Atreid dynasty.[15] Recent restudies of Grave Circle A artifacts and remains, such as those in the "Mycenae Revisited" project, highlight the site's role as a royal necropolis symbolizing Mycenaean elite power from the 16th century BCE onward, providing contextual support for myths like Atreus's as echoes of ancestral kingship traditions, even if chronologically displaced.[16] These interpretations underscore ongoing debates, balancing archaeological concreteness with the interpretive challenges of oral transmission across centuries.Mythological Narrative
Ancestry and Origins
Atreus was born into a lineage marked by divine retribution, tracing back to his grandfather Tantalus, a mortal king and son of Zeus who transgressed against the gods by slaying his son Pelops and serving his dismembered body to them at a banquet in an attempt to test their omniscience.[17] This act of hubris, detailed in later mythological accounts, provoked the gods' horror; they restored Pelops to life after detecting the deception, but the incident initiated a hereditary curse upon Tantalus' house, condemning it to cycles of familial strife and violence. Tantalus himself was eternally punished in the underworld, standing in a pool of receding water beneath overhanging fruit he could never reach, as described in Homer's Odyssey, symbolizing the insatiable torment that would echo through his descendants.[18] Pelops, revived by the gods—Demeter notably consuming and later replacing his shoulder with one of ivory—grew to manhood under divine favor, particularly from Poseidon, who abducted him as a youth to serve as his cup-bearer on Olympus before returning him to the mortal realm. Seeking a bride, Pelops pursued Hippodamia, daughter of King Oenomaus of Pisa, who had vowed to kill any suitor unable to defeat him in a chariot race, having already slain twelve or more challengers.[19] With Poseidon's aid, providing a chariot drawn by winged horses or divinely enhanced steeds, Pelops outpaced Oenomaus, causing the king's chariot axle to break—due to sabotage by the charioteer Myrtilus—and securing victory; Oenomaus perished in the wreckage, allowing Pelops to wed Hippodamia and claim rule over Pisa and surrounding territories.[17] This triumph, celebrated in Pindar's Olympian 1 as a foundational myth for the Olympic Games, further embedded the family's legacy in heroic contests but perpetuated the underlying curse through Myrtilus' dying imprecation against Pelops.[19] From this union of Pelops and Hippodamia sprang Atreus and his brother Thyestes, often depicted as twins in classical tradition, whose birth carried early portents of rivalry and doom reflective of their accursed heritage.[17] Apollodorus recounts their inclusion among Pelops' children, with Atreus positioned as the elder destined for kingship in Mycenae, yet the siblings' contentious natures emerged young, foreshadowing betrayals that would invoke the ongoing family curse of retribution and kin-slaying.[17] These omens, intertwined with the divine wrath first unleashed by Tantalus, set the stage for the House of Atreus' tragic trajectory.[20]Rivalry with Thyestes
The rivalry between Atreus and his twin brother Thyestes erupted over control of the throne of Mycenae, where Atreus ruled as king following the brothers' earlier arrival from their homeland in Pisa. Thyestes, seeking to usurp power, engaged in an adulterous affair with Atreus's wife, Aerope, daughter of Catreus, who secretly delivered to him a golden lamb born in Atreus's flocks—a fleece regarded as an omen of rightful sovereignty. Armed with this symbol, Thyestes publicly claimed the kingship, displacing Atreus and compelling him into temporary exile.[17][21] Determined to reclaim his position, Zeus sent Hermes to Atreus to propose a wager to Thyestes: the throne would revert to Atreus should the sun reverse its daily course across the heavens. Thyestes, confident in the impossibility, accepted the stipulation, only for the celestial phenomenon to occur immediately thereafter, interpreted as divine intervention against the adulterous usurpation. Atreus promptly returned from exile, seized the throne once more, and asserted his authority over Mycenae.[17] In the aftermath of the oracle's fulfillment, Atreus banished Thyestes from the kingdom, enforcing his exclusion to consolidate power and punish the betrayal. This initial expulsion marked the culmination of their contest, though it sowed seeds of enduring enmity within the House of Pelops.[17]Kingship and Major Deeds
Atreus secured his kingship over Mycenae through a contest with Thyestes, where the gods confirmed his rule by causing the sun to go backward, an unprecedented omen that restored the throne to him after Thyestes' brief usurpation via the golden lamb.[17] As ruler of this powerful Bronze Age citadel, Atreus consolidated authority by banishing his rival and maintaining control amid familial strife, while his sons Agamemnon and Menelaus later extended Mycenaean influence, with Agamemnon assuming leadership in the coalition against Troy following Atreus' death.[17] Atreus' most notorious act of vengeance stemmed from Thyestes' seduction of his wife Aerope and theft of the prophetic lamb, prompting Atreus to feign reconciliation and invite his brother to a banquet in Mycenae.[17] In a gruesome display of retribution, Atreus secretly slaughtered Thyestes' young sons—including Plisthenes and his brothers—and prepared their flesh as the meal, serving it to the unsuspecting Thyestes without revealing the horrific contents.[22] When Thyestes realized the nature of the banquet upon seeing their hands and heads presented afterward, he recoiled in horror and uttered a dire curse, imploring the gods to bring endless suffering and destruction upon Atreus' descendants as payback for the unspeakable crime.[22] This invocation marked the intensification of the familial curse, with the heavens darkening in response to the atrocity, signaling divine disapproval.[17]The House of Atreus
Immediate Family and Descendants
Atreus' most prominent marriage was to Aerope, the daughter of the Cretan king Catreus, with whom he fathered two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus.[17] These sons are frequently referenced in ancient epic poetry as direct offspring of Atreus, establishing the core of the royal lineage at Mycenae.[23] According to some mythological traditions, Aerope also bore Atreus a daughter named Anaxibia, who later married Strophius, the king of Phocis, and became the mother of Pylades.[24] Prior to his union with Aerope, Atreus is said in certain accounts to have married Cleola (or Cleolla), daughter of Dias, his brother, by whom he had a son named Pleisthenes; however, Pleisthenes died young, and Aerope, previously wed to Pleisthenes, became Atreus' second wife. This earlier marriage and heir represent a variant in the genealogical traditions, highlighting the complex and sometimes contradictory family narratives in ancient sources. Upon Atreus' death, his elder son Agamemnon succeeded him as king of Mycenae, while Menelaus, through his marriage to Helen, daughter of Tyndareus, became ruler of Sparta; Agamemnon later led the Greek expedition against Troy in the Trojan War. The descendants of Atreus extended the family line amid the ongoing curse that plagued the House of Atreus, influencing their fates in subsequent generations.[17]Thematization of the Curse
The curse on the House of Atreus, initiated by Atreus' infamous banquet where he served Thyestes his own sons, manifests as a relentless cycle of familial retribution that engulfs subsequent generations. This ancestral malediction, pronounced by Thyestes in horror, ensures that acts of violence beget further violence, trapping descendants in a web of inherited guilt and divine retribution.[25] In Agamemnon's life, the curse exacts its toll through the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, demanded by Artemis to appease winds delaying the Greek fleet at Aulis; this act of paternal impiety, driven by the family's tainted legacy, stains Agamemnon's return from Troy and foreshadows his doom.[26] The chorus in Aeschylus' Agamemnon laments this event as the inception of further woes, linking it directly to the house's polluted history. Agamemnon's murder by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus—Thyestes' surviving son—epitomizes the curse's perpetuation through adultery and vengeance, as Clytemnestra justifies the killing as recompense for Iphigenia's death and Agamemnon's wartime infidelities. Aegisthus, motivated by his father's curse against Atreus, collaborates in the act, invoking the family's enduring cycle of kin-slaying.[27] In Aeschylus' portrayal, this betrayal underscores how the curse transforms personal grievances into instruments of divine enforcement. The tragedy extends to Orestes, who, urged by Apollo and his sister Electra, commits matricide against Clytemnestra to avenge his father, thereby enacting yet another layer of filial impiety that invites the Furies' relentless pursuit. Tormented by these avenging deities, Orestes flees in madness until Athena convenes a trial in Athens, where his acquittal shifts justice from blood feud to civic law, ostensibly breaking the curse's hold.[28] Aeschylus' Eumenides frames this resolution as the triumph of ordered justice over chaotic retribution. Across these generations, the curse thematizes recurring motifs of filial impiety—evident in parent-child slayings—and adultery as catalysts for divine wrath, culminating in a broader exploration of justice's evolution from vengeful to institutionalized forms. Scholars interpret this as Aeschylus' commentary on transitioning from archaic blood justice to rational governance, with the house's tragedies illustrating the perils of unchecked familial pollution.[29] The narrative arc emphasizes divine justice's inexorability, where each act of impiety amplifies the curse until societal intervention halts the spiral.[30]Visual Family Tree
The genealogy of the House of Atreus, a prominent lineage in Greek mythology originating from Tantalus and extending through several generations marked by familial strife, is primarily outlined in ancient texts such as Pseudo-Apollodorus' Bibliotheca and fragments of Hesiod's Catalogue of Women.[17][31] This textual representation centers on Atreus, highlighting key parent-child relations, marriages, and offspring, with connections to the familial curse through figures like Aegisthus. The following hierarchical diagram illustrates the core lineage, drawing from the standard account in Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca Epitome 2.1–15), where Tantalus is the progenitor punished by the gods, Pelops his restored son, and Atreus and Thyestes as rival brothers whose descendants perpetuate the cycle of vengeance.[17]Tantalus (son of Zeus and Pluto/Dione)
└── Pelops (m. Hippodamia, daughter of Oenomaus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
├── Atreus (m. Aerope, daughter of Catreus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Agamemnon (m. Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus or of Zeus and Leda in variants)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html)
│ │ ├── Iphigenia[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ │ ├── Orestes (m. Hermione, daughter of Menelaus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ │ ├── Electra[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ │ └── Chrysothemis (variant name for Electra in some traditions)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html)
│ ├── Menelaus (m. Helen, daughter of Tyndareus or of Zeus and Leda)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html)
│ │ └── Hermione (m. Orestes or Neoptolemus in variants)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ └── Anaxibia (or Astydameia)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
├── Thyestes (m. unnamed wife; later Pelopia, his daughter, or Aerope in variants)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Unnamed sons (two or three, served to Thyestes by Atreus in the curse's pivotal banquet)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Tantalus (II, named after grandfather)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Nicippe (m. Sthenelus, son of Capaneus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ └── Aegisthus (son by Pelopia; key to curse as avenger who murders Atreus and later Agamemnon)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
└── Other siblings: Pittheus (father of Aethra, mother of Theseus); Alcathous; Nicippe; Lysidice; Astydameia[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
Tantalus (son of Zeus and Pluto/Dione)
└── Pelops (m. Hippodamia, daughter of Oenomaus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
├── Atreus (m. Aerope, daughter of Catreus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Agamemnon (m. Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndareus or of Zeus and Leda in variants)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html)
│ │ ├── Iphigenia[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ │ ├── Orestes (m. Hermione, daughter of Menelaus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ │ ├── Electra[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ │ └── Chrysothemis (variant name for Electra in some traditions)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html)
│ ├── Menelaus (m. Helen, daughter of Tyndareus or of Zeus and Leda)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/HesiodCatalogues.html)
│ │ └── Hermione (m. Orestes or Neoptolemus in variants)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ └── Anaxibia (or Astydameia)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
├── Thyestes (m. unnamed wife; later Pelopia, his daughter, or Aerope in variants)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Unnamed sons (two or three, served to Thyestes by Atreus in the curse's pivotal banquet)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Tantalus (II, named after grandfather)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ ├── Nicippe (m. Sthenelus, son of Capaneus)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
│ └── Aegisthus (son by Pelopia; key to curse as avenger who murders Atreus and later Agamemnon)[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)
└── Other siblings: Pittheus (father of Aethra, mother of Theseus); Alcathous; Nicippe; Lysidice; Astydameia[](https://www.theoi.com/Text/ApollodorusE.html)