Why was atreus curse

Unsurprisingly, Clytemnestra was furious with her husband. While he was gone, she began an affair with his step-brother, Aegisthus. Our story picks up over ten years later, when the Trojan War had finally come to an end. Agamemnon returned to his kingdom victorious, unaware of the death awaiting him at the hands of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra.

The pair slaughtered Agamemnon and became the new king and queen. Orestes and the Furies. Orestes and Electra were the surviving son and daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Orestes found sanctity at Delphi, where the Oracle told him to stand trial for his deed at Athens. A jury of citizens had to decide which crime was worse: Orestes letting the murder of his father go unavenged, or Orestes killing his mother.

The jury was deadlocked, but the goddess Athena cast the deciding vote and he was proclaimed not guilty. The miasma had gone. The curse of the House of Atreus and the never-ending cycle of revenge and retribution was finally broken by the justice of the State. Greek theatre at Epidauros. Academus Education. Curse of the House of Atreus by Isabella Green. Recent Posts See All. Leading up to here, we can see that the curse of the House of Atreus was one forged from murder, incest and deceit, and continued in this way for generations through the family line.

To put it simply, the curse demands blood for blood, a never ending cycle of murder within the family. Those who join the family seem to play a part in the curse as well, as seen in Clytemnestra when she murders her husband Agamemnon, in revenge for sacrificing their daughter, Iphigenia.

Orestes is said to be the end of the curse of the House of Atreus. The curse holds a major part in the Oresteia and is mentioned in it multiple times, showing that many of the characters are very aware of the curse's existence. Atreus soon found her while searching for Thyestes, and took her as his new wife, replacing the unfaithful Aerope. She bore Thyestes' son, but Atreus thought that the boy was his.

Atreus named the boy Aegisthus. After many years of searching for Thyestes, Atreus finally sent his two grown sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, to Delphi to find out where Thyestes was. Thyestes happened to be there, seeking new advice on taking revenge on Atreus, since he couldn't find his daughter more precisely, he didn't know he'd found his daughter.

Agamemnon and Menelaus hauled Thyestes back to Mycenae. Atreus had his other son, Aegisthus, behead Thyestes, but when Aegisthus pulled his sword, Thyestes recognized it as his own sword. They had Pelopia summoned secretly, and as she explained what her unknown attacker had done to her, she realized that she had had intercourse with her own father, and killed herself with the sword.

Aegisthus, now realizing that Thyestes was his true father, took the bloodied sword to Atreus as evidence that he had beheaded Thyestes. Atreus rejoiced, made sacrifices, and went to the river to wash his hands, where Aegisthus stabbed him in the back. Thyestes took the throne, and Agamemnon and Menelaus took refuge in Sparta with Tyndareus, the king.

They raised an army and returned to drive Thyestes from Mycenae. Tyndareus had married Leda, who was so beautiful that Zeus took, in the form of a swan, raped her. She had sex with Tyndareus on the same night. She gave birth to four children: Polydeuces and Helen, semidivine children, and Castor and Clytemnestra, mortal children.

In one version of the story, Leda actually laid two eggs-one with Zeus' children, one with Tyndareus'. Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, but many suitors came to court Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. And when the women of Thebes offered incense to Leto to ward off punishment Niobe flew into a rage, declaring that she herself was more worthy of such offerings.

The goddess Leto then sent Apollo to shoot down Niobe's sons and Artemis to shoot down her daughters. In anguish Niobe wept for her slain children, and Zeus changed her into a weeping statue.

After Tantalus had butchered his son Pelops to serve the gods, Zeus restored Pelops to life. But since his shoulder was missing, having been eaten by Demeter, Demeter gave him an ivory shoulder to replace it. Pelops became a favorite with Poseidon, although few human communities wanted him.

In his wanderings Pelops came to Arcadia, which was ruled by King Oenomaus, who had a beautiful daughter, Hippodamia. When suitors came to woo her, Oenomaus would challenge them to a chariot race in which the loser would die. And because Oenomaus had the fastest horses in Greece Hippodamia's suitors had very short lives. However, she fell in love with Pelops and bribed her father's charioteer to sabotage Oenomaus' chariot.

And Pelops received a pair of incredibly swift horses from Poseidon. Needless to say, Pelops won the race, killed Oenomaus, and married Hippodamia.

But when the charioteer claimed his reward for undoing Oenomaus, Pelops killed him, and as the charioteer died he pronounced a curse on Pelops and his descendants. Nevertheless, Pelops had a very successful reign. He conquered the whole Peloponnesus, which was named after him, had many children, and celebrated the Olympian games in honor of Zeus. Of his many sons Pelops loved the bastard Chrysippus the most, which made Hippodamia fear that her own children would lose the throne.

When Chrysippus was murdered by Hippodamia two of her sons were implicated, so Atreus and Thyestes fled to Mycenae. Atreus acquired a golden fleece there, which would have established his right to rule. But Thyestes made love to Atreus' wife, Aerope, and obtained the fleece from her. Having been made king, Thyestes agreed that if the sun should move backward in its course Atreus could take over the throne.

Zeus sent the sun backward across the sky, and Atreus acquired the kingdom of Mycenae. He had two sons by Aerope, Agamemnon and Menelaus. When Atreus learned that Thyestes had cuckolded him he invited Thyestes to a banquet and served his brother Thyestes' own sons, who had been butchered and boiled.

Nauseated, Thyestes laid a curse on Atreus and his sons. Thyestes then consulted the oracle at Delphi about how to get even. He was told to father a child on his own daughter Pelopia.