Atreus

Family: House of Atreus · Role: brother of Thyestes · First appears: Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1

At Pisa, Pelops wed the daughter of Œnomaus, and Atreus was born from that marriage. Atreus later married Aerope; he was also linked by elder kinship to Tantalus. His sons were Agamemnon and Menelaus, “Double-throned and doubled-sceptred,” and Electra was counted among his descendants.

Atreus’s relationship with his brother Thyestes became a struggle for rule. He drove Thyestes from his country and home, banished the infant Aegisthus with him, and then served Thyestes a banquet made from his own children: “Atreus then killed his children--and feasted him.” This made Atreus and Thyestes enemies, while Aegisthus later opposed him as well.

The calamity of Atreus’s house was associated with the ancient strife among the descendants of Tantalus, with murder answering murder among the sons of Atreus. Zeus was invoked in connection with the enduring law that the doer must suffer his fate, while Pan was said to have brought the golden lamb to Atreus’s feet.

Relationship record

Life events

• Atreus made Thyestes unknowingly eat the flesh of his own children.(Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 1)
  • With: Thyestes
  • “that Thyestes whom Atreus, his brother, had made to eat, unknowing, of the flesh of his own children.”
• Atreus banishes his brother Thyestes from his country and home.(Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 9)
  • With: Thyestes
  • “Atreus, our country's ruler, this man's father, Drove out my sire Thyestes, his own brother, (To tell the whole truth,) quarrelling for rule, An exile from his country and his home.”
• Atreus serves Thyestes a banquet made from his own children.(Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 9)
  • With: Thyestes
  • “On plea of keeping festal day with cheer, To my sire banquet gave of children's flesh, His own.”
• Atreus banishes the infant Aegisthus along with his father.(Aeschylus, Agamemnon — Scene 9)
  • With: Aegisthus
  • “For me, a babe in swaddling-clothes, he banished With my poor father, me, his thirteenth child;”
• Aias's raid slaughters the army's flocks, herds, and herdsmen, and is attributed to him.(Sophocles, Aias — Scene 1)
  • With: Aias Agamemnon Menelaus
  • “Brief time hath flown since suddenly we knew / That all our gathered spoil was reaved and slaughtered, / Flocks, herds, and herdmen, by some human hand, / All tongues, then, lay this deed at Aias' door.”
• Atreus killed Thyestes’ children and served them to him as food.(Euripides, Orestes — Scene 1)
  • With: Thyestes
  • “But Atreus then killed his children--and feasted him.”
• Pelops wedged and Atreus was born from the marriage.(Euripides, Iphigenia In Tauris — Scene 1 · 📍 Pisa)
  • With: Pelops
  • “Pelops, the son of Tantalus, setting out to Pisa with his swift steeds, weds the daughter of Œnomaus, from whom sprang Atreus;”