The Atreus Oikos on One Webpage

So you want to know the family history...

The history of the House of Atreus is a bizarre tale that would rival even the weirdest soap opera plot you ever heard of. I'll try to make it as clear as I can.

Let's start with a little geography. Mycenae, where Agamemnon rules with his wife Clytaemnestra, and Sparta, where Menelaus rules with his wife Helen, are located in a part of Greece that is known as the Peloponnesus. It looks a little like a hand with fingers reaching down into the Aegean Sea.

The Peloponnesus is named after the hero Pelops. Pelops had a dysfunctional childhood, to say the least. His father, Tantalus, cut him up and served him as dinner to the gods in a bizarre sort of test to see if they would figure out what was on the menu. They did, and they didn't appreciate his trick: he's now being punished in Tartarus (the Greek version of Hell), tortured with eternal thirst and hunger as he stands knee-deep in water that always retreats when he tries to drink, surrounded by trees heavy with fruit that's just out of his reach. This is where we get our word "tantalize."

The gods reconstructed Pelopsafter this experience...all except his shoulder. The harvest goddess Demeter had been worrying about her missing daughter (but that's another story!), and she absent-mindedly gnawed Pelops's shoulder before she realized what she was eating. It had to be replaced with an ivory one.

If you're already confused, ignore this box!

Here's an interesting tidbit unrelated to the Pelops story: Remember the story about Dionysus having to be reconstructed after the Titans tore him to pieces? The story of Pelops is remarkably similar. Pelops was resurrected after being placed in a cauldron. You might also be familiar with the story of Medea (if not, you will be before this semester is over). Medea is a witch, with knowledge she gained from her Aunt Circe (you may know Circe as a character in Homer's Odyssey). Medea, too, is able to resurrect people in a cauldron.

Poseidon became fond of the boy the gods had reconstructed, so he gave Pelops a winged chariot and taught him how to drive it, a talent that came in very handy when Pelops wanted to win the hand of the princess Hippodameia of Elis (her name means "tamer of horses"). The vase shown on the right is a picture of Pelops driving this chariot (okay, so it's the horses who have wings in the picture. The vase painter seems to have taken some artistic license, or was using a variant version of the myth).

Hippodameia's father, Oinomaos, set as a condition for her suitors that they carry her in their chariot from Elis to Corinth before he could overtake them. So far he'd overtaken and killed every one of them, but with Poseidon's training and the fabulous winged chariot Pelops was able to turn the tables on him and marry the maiden. Some stories claim that he prudently sawed partway through Oinomaos's chariot axle in advance, just to be sure. This kind of treachery would make sense, given the fact that the whole clan seems to have been distinguished by a history of betrayals.

Pelops and Hippodameia's children were Atreus, Thyestes, and Chrysippos (this name means "golden horse." I have no idea what that refers to).

Atreus was the father of Menelaus, who later married Helen (aka "Helen of Troy"), and Atreus was also the father of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae who married Helen's mortal twin sister Clytemnestra. Helen runs off with Paris of Troy, and kicks off the Trojan War. Aeschylus's tragedy picks up at the end of the war.

Thyestes was the father of Aegisthus, the fellow with whom Clytaemnestra is having an affair in Aeschylus's Agamemnon. So Aegisthus is Agamemnon's cousin.

Chrysippos (a male) was kidnapped and raped by Laius, the king of Thebes who was murdered by his own son Oedipus. Yes! All these stories do eventually tie together! But this isn't an important part of the family curse, so let's leave Chrysippos out of this.

The sordid story of Atreus and Thyestes, in outline form:

Two of Pelops' many sons are a pair of bloodthirsty rascals named Atreus and Thyestes.

They struggle over the throne of Mycenae.

Atreus offends the goddess Artemis by promising to sacrifice his finest lamb to her--a lamb with a golden fleece.

So you can see that this family has a history of trouble with Artemis. Poor Iphigenia, Atreus's granddaughter and Agamemnon's daughter, will have to be sacrificed to Artemis so the winds can blow Troyward. I wouldn't blame Artemis a bit if she just plain got fed up with this family. Remember too that she would have been present, as were all the gods, when Tantalus tried to dish up Pelops as the main course.

Thyestes steals the fleece with the aid of Atreus's wife. Thyestes is having an affair with her, so this isn't too difficult.

Thyestes produces the fleece as proof of his claim to kingship.

Atreus one-ups Thyestes by prophesying that Zeus will make the sun rise in the west. It works, and Thyestes is banished. No, I don't know why Zeus cooperated with Atreus on this one.

Atreus figures out how Thyestes got the fleece and invites him to dinner, under the pretence of a peacemaking gesture.

Thyestes' sons are dinner, under the pretence of barbecued beef. Shades of Tantalus!!

Thyestes hears he can get revenge by fathering a son on his own daughter Pelopia, who is currently missing.

Romantic (???) Interlude: Thyestes rapes a stranger near Sicyon and loses his sword in the process (no, I don't know whether that's some kind of weird phallic symbol thing). Then he continues looking for his daughter, unaware she is the stranger he just raped. D'oh!

**Dysfunctional Family Tree**

Pelopia marries Atreus, who's ditched the adulteress.

Atreus's new wife gives birth to Aegisthus--Atreus thinks it's his child. Yes! Agamemnon actually believes Aegisthus is his half-brother. I told you this is like a soap opera..

Agamemnon and Menelaus (sons of Atreus's first wife) seize Thyestes and force him to return to Mycenae.

Aegisthus tries to kill Thyestes with the same sword he left behind near Sicyon.

Aegisthus's mother tells all when the sword is identified as having belonged to Thyestes. Realizing she committed incest with her Dad, she now commits suicide.

Aegisthus kills Atreus with Thyestes' sword. One day he'll kill Agamemnon with it, too, after seducing Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra. After which Agamemnon's son Orestes will kill him. Do we start to detect a pattern here????

Thyestes takes the throne of Mycenae (finally!).

Agamemnon and Menelaus flee to Sparta, where they fall for King Tyndareüs's twin daughters, Clytemnestra and Helen.

Eventually Agamemnon returns to Mycenae and takes the throne with Clytemnestra at his side. Menelaus remains behind and rules Sparta with Helen at his side (until she runs off with Paris).

More Mythology: The House of Tyndareüs

King Tyndareüs's beautiful wife, Leda, is seduced by Zeus in the form of a swan. She is seduced by her husband the same night. She lays two eggs (yes, eggs!): one produces Zeus's son Polydeuces (also known as Pollux) and Tyndareüs's son Castor (together, Castor and Polydeuces were known as the Dioscuri, or Gemini), and the other produces Zeus's daughter Helen and Tyndareüs's daughter Clytemnestra. Helen and Clytemnestra supposedly had unusually fair skin due to their incubation within an eggshell.

You may notice the line I have drawn from Orestes to Hermione. This was not just to make things look tidy; Orestes does eventually marry Hermione. The story is told in Euripides' Orestes, which we will not read for this class (I know you're disappointed to hear that...). Hermione was engaged to Achilles' son at the time, but that's another story. And no, as far as I know, this particular Hermione has no connection whatsoever with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.