Atreus

, a son of Pelops by Hippo dam i a, daughter of Œnoma us king of Pisa, was king of Mycenæ, and brother to Pit the us, Trœzon, Thyestes, and Chrysippus. As Chrysippus was an illegitimate son, and at the same time a favourite of his father, Hippo dam i a resolved to remove him. She persuaded her sons Thyestes and Atreus to murder him; but their refusal exasperated her more, and she executed it herself. This murder was grievous to Pelops: he suspected his two sons, who fled away from his presence. Atreus retired to the court of Eurystheus king of Argos, his nephew, and upon his death he succeeded him on the throne. He married, as some report, Ærope, his predece or’s daughter, by whom he had Plisthenes, Menelaus, and Agamemnon. Others affirm that Ærope was the wife of Plisthenes, by whom he had Agamemnon and Menelaus, who are the reputed sons of Atreus, because that prince took care of their education, and brought them up as his own. See: Plisthenes . Thyestes had followed his brother to Argos, where he lived with him, and debauched his wife, by whom he had two, or, according to some, three children. This incestuous commerce offended Atreus, and Thyestes was banished from his court. He was, however, soon after recalled by his brother, who determined cruelly to revenge the violence offered to his bed. To effect this purpose, he invited his brother to a sumptuous feast, where Thyestes was served up with the flesh of the children he had had by his sister-in-law the queen. After the repast was finished, the arms and the heads of the murdered children were produced, to convince Thyestes of what he had feasted upon. This action appeared so cruel and impious, that the sun is said to have shrunk back in his course at the bloody sight. Thyestes immediately fled to the court of Thesp rot us, and thence to Sicyon, where he ravished his own daughter Pelopea, in a grove sacred to Minerva, without knowing who she was. This incest he committed intentionally, as some report, to revenge himself on his brother Atreus, according to the words of the oracle, which promised him satisfaction for the cruelties he had suffered only from the hand of a son who should be born of himself and his own daughter. Pelopea brought forth a son whom she called Ægisthus, and soon after she married Atreus, who had lost his wife. Atreus adopted Ægisthus, and sent him to murder Thyestes, who had been seized at Delphi and imprisoned. Thyestes knew his son, and made himself known to him; he made him espouse his cause, and instead of becoming his father’s murderer, he rather avenged his wrongs, and returned to Atreus, whom he a a inated. See: Thyestes , Ægisthus , Pelopea , Agamemnon , and Menelaus . Hyginus , fables 83, 86, 87, 88, & 258.— Euripi des , Orestes ; I phi gene i a in Taurus .— Plutarch , Parallel a minor a .— Pausanias , bk. 9 , ch. 40 .— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 10 .— Seneca on Atreus .