Atreus
King of Mycenae who murdered his nephews and fed them to his brother Thyestes, establishing the bloodiest family curse in myth.
The Legend of Atreus
He cooked his brother's children and served them at a reconciliation dinner — the original revenge served cold. After Thyestes seduced Atreus's wife and tried to steal his throne, Atreus lured him back with a false offer of peace. He killed Thyestes's young sons, butchered them, and cooked their flesh into a stew. At the feast, Thyestes ate unknowingly. Atreus then produced the children's severed heads and hands. The House of Atreus was cursed from that day forward: Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia, Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon, Orestes killed Clytemnestra. Every generation inherits the violence. Seneca's Thyestes is one of the most disturbing plays in classical literature.
Parents
Pelops, Hippodamia
Children
Agamemnon, Menelaus
Symbols
Fun Fact
The phrase House of Atreus became a byword for a family destroyed by inherited violence.
Explore Further
Thyestes
🗡 herocurse
Brother of Atreus who seduced his sister-in-law and was tricked into eating his own children at the feast of Atreus.
Procne
🗡 herovengeance
Athenian princess married to Tereus who killed her own son Itys to avenge her sister Philomela's rape.
Aegisthus
🗡 herovengeance
Son of Thyestes who murdered Agamemnon to avenge his father, ruling Mycenae with Clytemnestra for seven years.
Alcmaeon
🗡 herovengeance
Son of Amphiaraus who killed his own mother Eriphyle on his father's orders and was driven mad by the Erinyes.
Clytemnestra
🗡 heroQueen who murdered Agamemnon
Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon on his return from Troy, driven by rage over Iphigenia's sacrifice.
Tereus and Philomela
🗡 herovengeance, transformation
The myth of a Thracian king who assaulted his sister-in-law and cut out her tongue, only for the sisters to exact gruesome revenge.
Acastus
🗡 herovengeance
King of Iolcus and Argonaut who tried to murder Peleus through treachery on Mount Pelion — a tale of false accusation and sacred hospitality violated.
Aerope
🗡 heroAdultery, royalty
Queen of Mycenae whose adultery with Thyestes caused the devastating curse upon the House of Atreus
Itys
🗡 herotragedy
Young son of Tereus and Procne murdered by his own mother and served as food to his father in revenge for Philomela's rape.
Chrysippus
🗡 heroNone recorded
A son of Pelops whose abduction by Laius of Thebes brought a curse upon the house of Laius and introduced the theme of transgression that haunted the Oedipus cycle
Myrtilus
🗡 herocurse
Charioteer of King Oenomaus bribed by Pelops to sabotage his master's chariot, then murdered by Pelops and the origin of the Pelopid curse.
Tantalus
🗡 heroKing punished with eternal hunger and thirst
A king who offended the gods by serving them his own son as a meal. His punishment in Tartarus — standing in water that recedes when he tries to drink, beneath fruit that pulls away when he reaches for it — gave us the word "tantalize."