The House of Atreus was one of the major dynasties to feature in the plays and stories of the dramatists of ancient Greece. Traditionally the descendants of Pelops were associated with the settlement and political development of large areas of the northern and central Peloponnese Peninsula. Several of Atreus’s brothers (not all of whom are shown in the family tree, above), for example, were believed to have ruled important cities in the eastern area of the Peloponnese, including Troezen, Sicyon, and Epidaurus. Atreus and Thyestes were closely linked to the Argolid, the eastern Peloponnesian Plain that includes the historical cities of Argos, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Nauplion. The sons of Pelops came to the Argolid after they were expelled by their father for murdering Chrysippus, Pelops’s son by a nymph whom he had married before Hippodameia. As the oldest son, Chrysippus was heir to Pelops’s kingdom. (In another version, Chrysippus committed suicide, after he was abducted and raped by another man, Laius.)
Atreus and Thyestes settled near Mycenae, which was ruled by Perseus’s grandson Eurystheus. Eurystheus’s father had married one of Pelops’s daughters, so Eurystheus was the nephew of the two brothers. When Eurystheus died, an oracle prophesied that one of the two sons of Pelops would inherit the throne.
Atreus, who was the older brother, had the stronger claim to the Mycenaean throne, but Thyestes proposed that whoever possessed a certain golden lambskin should become king. The prized lamb had been given to Atreus as a cursed gift by either the god Hermes, father of Myrtilus, or by the goddess Artemis as a test to see if Atreus would willingly sacrifice it to her. Atreus, assuming the lambskin was still safely locked away, agreed. Unknown to Atreus, however, Thyestes had earlier seduced Atreus’s wife, Aerope, and persuaded her to give him the golden lambskin. When Thyestes presented the prize, he became king. Atreus, realizing he had been tricked, convinced Zeus to help him win the throne. Zeus made the sun move backward in the sky. The Mycenaeans recognized this as a sign that identified Thyestes as a usurper.
Not satisfied with having become king, Atreus wanted revenge for Thyestes’ seduction of Aerope. He threw a banquet in his brother’s honor, and all seemed to have been
Below: The Treasury of Atreus was the tomb of a Mycenaean ruler whose identity is unknown. The triangle above the doorway is typical of ancient Mycenaean architecture.
The Treasury of Atreus
Atreus's name was given to the most famous piece of architecture to survive from the Mycenaean civilization, the Treasury of Atreus. The structure was originally a tomb that would have included valuable grave goods, but it was plundered thousands of years ago. No one knows the name of the king who was buried there. Archaeologists believe that the tomb was built between 1300 and 1200 BCE. It was carved into a hillside and was made of rectangular blocks of stone stacked in 33 rows. It is an example of a tholos, or beehive tomb, so called because the shape of its dome resembles a beehive. Inside the tomb the rotunda is 44 feet (13.5 m) high and 48 feet (14.6 m) wide. The pathway leading up to the doorway of the tomb is 115 feet (35 m) long, flanked by high walls. The facade was originally richly decorated, and some of the reliefs survive in museums around the world, such as in Athens, Berlin, and London.
Forgiven. After the main course had been consumed, Atreus revealed the severed limbs and heads ofThyestes’ sons cooked in a stew. Thyestes realized he had already eaten the flesh of his sons. Following the gruesome banquet, Atreus banished Thyestes from Mycenae. According to some versions of the legend, it was Thyestes, not Myrtilus, who then placed a curse on the House of Atreus.
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