The Oresteia

Investigation: The House of Atreus

Who is Dione, aside from being Tantalus’ wife?

Who are Hippodamia’s parents? Which one of these is the offspring of a god? Which god? Is this ancestry appropriate to the history of the House of Atreus? How?

Who is Niobe’s husband? Who are her parents? Who is her brother? Who is her brother’s wife? What is the myth concerning Niobe’s children? Chloris is said to survive; whom does she marry? Who is her son (famous at Troy and in the Odyssey)? Who is his wife, and who is their son? What role does that son play in the Odyssey?

Who is Pittheus’ daughter? Whom does she marry? Which famous Greek hero is their son?

What is the relationship of Cleola to Atreus? What is Pleisthenes’ relationship to Atreus?

Who are Thyestes’ offspring by his sister-in-law, Aerope?

Are there any myths concerning the parentage and ancestry of Aerope? If so, are they appropriate to the history of the House of Atreus?

Who is Aegisthus’ daughter by Clytemnestra? According to some mythographers, whom does she marry?

What is the relationship of Teledamus and a second Pelops to Agamemnon? Who is their mother?

Who is Clytemnestra’s mother? Who is her father? What is her brother’s name? What are the names of her half-brother and half-sister? Who is the father of those siblings? What is the myth behind the birth of these four children?

According to some mythographers, which of his cousins does Orestes marry?

To whom is Hermione promised in marriage? [It is this marriage that her family is celebrating when Telemachus appears in Sparta seeking information about his father.] Who are the bridegroom’s parents? What is the story behind the marriage?

Glossary of Names: The Oresteia

Achilles - greatest hero of the Trojan War; killed by Paris

Aegeus - father of Theseus, killed himself when he thought Theseus had fallen before the Minotaur; he had dealings with Medea

Aegisthus - son of unwitting incest of Thyestes with his daughter Pelopeia; lover of Clytemnestra; reared by Atreus; accessory to the murder of Agamemnon

Aerope - committed adultery with her brother-in-law Thyestes and bore him triplets (which were later served to him as food in the revenge of Atreus, Aerope’s husband)

Aethra - daughter of Pittheus, wife of Aegeus, mother of Theseus

Agamemnon - king of Mycenae, commander-in-chief of the Greeks at Troy; he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to Artemis to gain her favor; he took the Trojan princess Cassandra as his mistress

Aglaus - one of the children of Thyestes served to him in a stew

Amphion - musician and builder of the walls of Thebes

Anaxibia - daughter of Atreus and Aerope, sister of Agamemnon and Menelaus, mother of Nestor’s seven sons and two daughters

Antiope - persecuted by her jealous aunt Dirce, who was put to death by Antiope’s twin sons

Ares - god of offensive war

Astyache - a nymph who gave Pelops a natural son, Chrysippus

Atreus - shocked the gods by feeding Thyestes his own children

Broteas - son of Tantalus and brother of Pelops; the ugliest man in history

Callileon - one of the children of Thyestes served to him in a stew

Cassandra - one of the twelve daughters of King Priam of Troy; Apollo granted her the gift of prophecy, but when she rejected him, he decreed that no prophecy of hers would ever be believed; she was murdered immediately after Agamemnon to whom she had borne twin sons

Castor - an excellent horseman, mortal brother of Pollux, Helen, and Clytemnestra

Chloris - sole survivor of the killing of Niobe’s children; she was the first victrix in the games to Hera instituted by Hippodamia

Chrysippus - natural son of Pelops, highly favored by his father; carried away to Thebes by Laius [Oedipus’ father] who was enamored of him, whereupon Hera sent the Sphinx to punish Thebes; killed by Hippodamia who feared he would supersede Atreus and Thyestes to the throne of Pelops

Cleola - first wife of Atreus

Clytemnestra - mortal daughter of Tyndareus and Leda; became the paramour of Aegisthus for seven years while Agamemnon was at Troy; murdered her husband; was murdered in revenge by her son

Deidamia - seduced by Achilles while he hid at her father’s court disguised as a girl to avoid going to Troy

Dione - mother of Aphrodite

Electra - second daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; incited her brother Orestes to avenge their father’s murder

Erigone - had a son by Orestes, but in some versions of the story brought Orestes to trial for the murder of her mother; hanged herself when Orestes was acquitted

Helen - the most beautiful woman of her age - or, perhaps, of all history; her abduction by Paris was the direct cause of the Trojan War

Hermione - promised to Orestes; but Menelaus, ignorant of this, gave her to Neoptolemus who sought her in marriage

Hippodamia - she bribed her father’s charioteer to throw the chariot race with Pelops who sought her in marriage; Pelops murdered both the charioteer (Myrtilus) and Oenomaus (her father) after the race

Iphigenia - sacrificed to appease the gods so that they would send favorable winds to the Greek fleet at Aulis (for Agamemnon had killed Artemis’ favorite stag), although some have it that she was exchanged at the last moment for a beautiful stag by Artemis who took Iphigenia to her temple at Tauris

Leda - wife of Tyndareus; in the form of a swan, Zeus seduced her, and she bore quadruplets: Pollux and Helen by Zeus, Castor and Clytemnestra by Tyndareus, all four of whom hatched from two swan’s eggs

Menelaus - king of Sparta; husband of Helen of Troy

Neleus - brother of Pelias, with whom he seized the kingdom of Iolchos from Aeson, the father of Jason of Argo fame

Neoptolemus (Pyrrhus) - first to enter the Trojan Horse; he killed King Priam

Nestor - the most perfect of the Homeric heroes: eloquent, just, prudent, and wise; only son of Neleus not killed by Heracles

Niobe - taunted Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis, for having only two children; she was turned to stone while weeping for the murders of her children

Oenomaus - killed by Pelops after Pelops won the chariot race for Hippodamia’s hand

Orchomenus - one of the sons of Thyestes served to him as food by Atreus

Orestes - with Pylades he went to Mycenae to aid Electra in murdering Clytemnestra and Aegisthus; pursued by the Furies until Athena intervened; later killed Neoptolemus and married Hermione who had been promised to him

Pelopeia - mother of Aegisthus by her own father Thyestes; later married her uncle Atreus

Pelops - won Hippodamia in a rigged chariot race; murdered Oenomaus and Myrtilus; once served to the gods as food by his father, but was restored by Zeus - all except for his shoulder which had been eaten by Demeter who was distraught over the abduction of Persephone: Demeter offered an ivory piece in substitution

Pittheus - king of Troezen; grandfather and teacher of Theseus

Pleisthenes - sent by Thyestes (who had raised him) to kill Atreus; instead, Atreus killed him, not knowing who he was; Atreus killed Thyestes’ three sons and served them to Thyestes as food in revenge

Pollux - immortal brother of Castor

Pylades - cousin and companion of Orestes

Tantalus - stole a favorite golden dog of Zeus; stole ambrosia and nectar and gave them to mortals; served his son Pelops to the gods in a stew

Thebe - wife of Zethus who renamed Cadmeia after her

Theseus - second greatest non-Homeric hero in mythology, king of Athens

Thyestes - debauched Aerope; committed incest unwittingly with his daughter; dethroned by Agamemnon and Menelaus

Troezen - eponymous founder of Troezen

Tyndareus - king of Lacedaimon; husband of Leda

Zethus - co-builder of the walls of Thebes

Zeus - king of the gods of Greece

The Pedigree of Sins of the House of Atreus

Eight of the thirty-three surviving Greek tragedies deal with this family and its curse.