Atreus

[ ey-tree-uhs, ey-tryoos ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

, Classical Mythology.

the father of Plisthenes, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia upon whose house Thyestes pronounced a curse.

Atreus

/ ˈeɪtrɪəs; ˈeɪtrɪˌuːs /

Greek myth a king of Mycenae, son of Pelops, father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, and member of the family known as the Atreids ( ˈeɪtrɪɪdz )

Resurrected by the gods, Pelops has a son whom he names Atreus, and Atreus repeats the family curse.

It was as inevitable as that the doom of Orestes should follow the original crime of the house of Atreus.

In Mycenæ we find the “Tomb of Atreus,” a magnificent building in the form of a beehive.

Atreus, to revenge himself of his unnatural brother, killed the sons of Thyestes, and invited him to eat them.

But warlike Menelaus, the son of Atreus, prevailed against them all together, because he gave the greatest gifts.

Agamemnon was a son of Atreus according to Homer, and was the brother of Menelaus.

Browse