Atreus, Agamemnon, Orestes

CC 303 Intro to Classical Mythology - Fall 2009
Department of Classics, University of Texas at Austin, Prof. Lawrence Kim

Pelops, Atreus, Thyestes, Aeschylus, Oresteia
Aegisthus, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Orestes, Pylades, Electra
Cassandra, Iphigenia, The Furies (Eumenides), Delphi, Athens, Argos, Mycenae

1. Pelops, son of Tantalus

• Moves to Greece from Asia Minor
• Gives his name to the Peloponnese (= Pelops' Island)
• Seeks Hippodameia, daughter of Oenomaüs, king of Pisa, as bride
• Must defeat O. in chariot race or die (like Atalanta myth)
• P. bribes stablehand Myrtilus to replace O.’s axles with wax ones
• Oenomaüs dies when wax axles melt
• Pelops kills Myrtilus, who curses his family
  

2. Atreus and Thyestes, sons of Pelops

• Atreus and Thyestes compete for kingship of Mycenae – golden ram
• Thyestes seduces Atreus' wife, Aërope
• With her help, T. cheats A. out of kingship
• Zeus, displeased, makes sun rise in west, set in east
• As revenge, Atreus feeds Thyestes’ three sons to him
• T. rapes and impregnates his daughter, Pelopia, unknowingly
• Pelopia marries Atreus, bears T.'s son Aegisthus
• Aegisthus revealed as Thyestes' son
• Pelopia commits suicide
• Aegisthus murders Atreus
• Agamemnon and Menelaus, sons of Atreus, reclaim throne of Mycenae from Thyestes

1. The Return of Agamemnon (The Oresteia Trilogy)
   • Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia at Aulis
   • Clytemnestra, his wife, angry, has an affair with Aegisthus
   • Agamemnon comes home, bringing Cassandra along as war-prize
   • Aegisthus and Clytemnestra kill Agamemnon and Cassandra
2. The Murder of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra
   • Orestes, son of Agamemnon, grew up near Delphi w/friend Pylades
   • Receives oracle from Apollo to get revenge for his father's murder
   • Recognition scene with sister Electra, who had been married off to a peasant
   • E. has great love for father, hatred for mother
   • Orestes kills Aegisthus, then Clytemnestra
   • Speech of Pylades (Aeschylus), Electra's role
   • Castor and Pollux (Euripides)
   • Electra and Pylades marry
   • Orestes in exile, flees to Athens
3. The Trial of Orestes
   1. The Furies persecute the murderers of blood-relations
   • Orestes goes mad, hounded by visions of the Furies
     
   2. Trial on the Areopagus (Hill of Ares) in Athens
   3. Jury splits: Athena decides in favor of Orestes (Aeschylus)
   4. Equal votes means acquittal, Apollo is to blame (Euripides)
   5. Furies are transformed into the Eumenides (The Kindly Ones)

1. Iphigeneia at Aulis. Jacques-Louis David.
2. Murder of Agamemnon. Guerin.
3. Clytemnestra Killing Cassandra.
4. Clytemnestra. Collier.
5. The Remorse of Orestes. Bouguereau, 1862.
6. Orestes and Aegisthus.
7. Orestes, Aegisthus, and Clytemnestra.