She bore Thyestes' son, but Atreus thought that the boy was his. Atreus named the boy Aegisthus. After many years of searching for Thyestes, Atreus finally sent his two grown sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, to Delphi to find out where Thyestes was.
Thyestes happened to be there, seeking new advice on taking revenge on Atreus, since he couldn't find his daughter more precisely, he didn't know he'd found his daughter.
Agamemnon and Menelaus hauled Thyestes back to Mycenae. Atreus had his other son, Aegisthus, behead Thyestes, but when Aegisthus pulled his sword, Thyestes recognized it as his own sword. They had Pelopia summoned secretly, and as she explained what her unknown attacker had done to her, she realized that she had had intercourse with her own father, and killed herself with the sword.
Aegisthus, now realizing that Thyestes was his true father, took the bloodied sword to Atreus as evidence that he had beheaded Thyestes. Atreus rejoiced, made sacrifices, and went to the river to wash his hands, where Aegisthus stabbed him in the back. Thyestes took the throne, and Agamemnon and Menelaus took refuge in Sparta with Tyndareus, the king. They raised an army and returned to drive Thyestes from Mycenae.
Tyndareus had married Leda, who was so beautiful that Zeus took, in the form of a swan, raped her. She had sex with Tyndareus on the same night. She gave birth to four children: Polydeuces and Helen, semidivine children, and Castor and Clytemnestra, mortal children.
In one version of the story, Leda actually laid two eggs-one with Zeus' children, one with Tyndareus'. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, but many suitors came to court Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. Odysseus saw that he was going to lose, and suggested a solution to the situation to Tyndareus in exchange for Tyndareus' niece, Penelope. Ovid captures her heartbreak in an episode from his catalogue of myths, the Metamorphoses :.
Niobe wept until she turned to stone. She is said to have transformed into a cliff side with a gushing waterfall, forever weeping. Pelops also had two sons, Atreus and Thyestes. Atreus became king of the region called Mycenae. Meanwhile, his younger brother Thyestes betrayed him by seducing his wife. Once Thyestes had finished eating, Atreus told him he had just eaten his own children. Thyestes and Atreus c.
The Greeks felt their cause for war was just, but the winds would not propel the sails of their warships. Agamemnon summoned his daughter with promises that she would marry the Greek soldier Achilles, but when she arrived, his friends seized her and slit her throat over the altar. Greek playwright Aeschylus writes:. The winds became favorable and the Greeks sailed to Troy. After 10 years of fighting, they razed Troy to the ground and stole Helen back. The House of Atreus family tree.
Agamemnon sailed home victorious and brought the Trojan princess Cassandra with him. Cassandra was not only a princess, but also a seer, having been endowed with the gift of divine sight by the god Apollo, who loved her. Once Agamemnon entered his palace, his wife and her lover Aegisthus stabbed him to death in the bathtub. This murder was the inheritance of the previous generation. Aegisthus, the son of Thyestes, murdered Agamemnon, the son of Atreus.
Each of the three great Greek dramatists, Aeschylus, Sophocles , and Euripides , wrote a version of this story. Orestes learned that his mother has killed his father and, encouraged by Electra and the god Apollo, he vowed revenge. Orestes fulfilled his filial duty to his father and murdered his mother Clytemnestra.
In doing so, he awakened the Furies of the Underworld. The Furies are monstrous women with snakes for hair who avenge family murders. These creatures pursued Orestes across Greece to Athens. There, in Greek fashion, the Furies took Orestes to trial with Apollo as defense counsel and Athena as judge. Cassandra and Agamemnon were murdered upon their return by either Clytemnestra or Aegisthus.
Orestes, having first obtained the blessing of Apollo , returned home to exact revenge on his mother. But the Eumenides Furies —only doing their job with respect to a matricide—pursued Orestes and drove him mad. Orestes and his divine protector turned to Athena to arbitrate the dispute. Athena appealed to a human court, the Areopagus, whose jurors were split.
Athena cast the deciding vote in favor of Orestes. This decision is upsetting to modern women because Athena, who had been born from the head of her father, judged mothers less important than fathers in the production of children. However we might feel about it, what was important was that it put an end to the chain of cursed events.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content.
Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Menelaus married the beautiful Helen, and Tyndareus allowed him to rule Sparta.
Agamemnon became the head of the Greek forces and left Mycenae for ten years to fight the Trojans. His wife Clytemnestra had little love for Agamemnon. He had killed her first husband, sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to Artemis to allow the Greek fleet to sail, and taken a number of mistresses. To avenge herself Clytemnestra took her husband's arch-rival, Aegisthus, for her lover, and with him she plotted Agamemnon's death. When her husband returned victorious from Troy Clytemnestra greeted him warmly, although he had brought Cassandra, his foreign mistress, home with him.
At the banquet given in honor of his homecoming, Aegisthus slaughtered Agamemnon as Clytemnestra murdered Cassandra. Aegisthus' forces were triumphant in defeating the king's supporters, and Aegisthus took over Mycenae and ruled it with Clytemnestra. However, two of Clytemnestra's children by Agamemnon had been spared.
The daughter Electra was allowed to live in the palace but was badly treated by her mother and Aegisthus. The son Orestes had been spirited away for his own safety. Raised at Crisa, Orestes made a friend of Pylades, the son of the king. Eight years later he went with Pylades to the Delphic oracle, which told him that he must avenge his father's murder or live as an outcast and leper.
Returning secretly to Mycenae, he met his sister Electra at Agamemnon's grave. Electra welcomed him cordially, for here was the means by which Aegisthus and Clytemnestra would meet their just punishment. Orestes and Pylades went to the palace with news that Orestes was dead. Clytemnestra was delighted to learn of it and invited the pair in. Aegisthus heard the news and joined the queen, and Orestes slew him. Clytemnestra recognized her son and pleaded with him to spare her, but Orestes beheaded her according to the will of the gods.
The Erinnyes, or Furies, made their appearance to punish Orestes with continual torment. Obsessed by guilt, Orestes returned to the Delphic oracle, where he learned that he must undergo a year's exile and then go to the temple of Athena at Athens. His year in exile nearly unhinged his mind for good, because the Furies were relentless in their persecution of Orestes.
At length he arrived in Athens and went to the temple, where he admitted his guilt, refusing to blame the gods for the deed. Apollo and Athena sided with Orestes against the Furies, who clamored for perpetual retribution. Athena spoke eloquently on Orestes' behalf and managed to persuade some of the Furies to quit tormenting him.
But others were not satisfied with the gods' decision, holding that the old punishments were proper.
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