Aegisthus’s Family Tree

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Family

• Clytemnestra(spouse),Aletes(child),Erigone Aegisthid(child)— Consort

  Clytemnestra took Aegisthus as lover and co-ruler of Mycenae during Agamemnon's decade at Troy, and together they bore Erigone Aegisthid and Aletes before conspiring to murder the king upon his return.

• Pelopia(parent),Thyestes(parent)— Consort

  Thyestes fathered Aegisthus upon his own daughter Pelopia, as directed by an oracle, to create an avenger against the house of Atreus.

Enemy of

• Agamemnon

  Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, harbored a blood feud against the House of Atreus. He seduced Clytemnestra during the Trojan War and together they murdered Agamemnon upon his return.

• Electra (Argive)

  Electra endured years under Aegisthus's rule of Mycenae after he helped Clytemnestra murder Agamemnon. She aided Orestes in killing Aegisthus to avenge their father.

• Orestes

  Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover and usurper of Agamemnon's throne, was Orestes's sworn enemy. Orestes returned from exile to kill Aegisthus as part of his divinely commanded vengeance.

• Strophius

  Strophius harbored young Orestes in Phocis, directly defying Aegisthus, who had usurped Mycenae and sought to eliminate Agamemnon's heir.

Slew

• Agamemnon

  Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon in his bath upon his return from Troy, entangling him in a robe and striking him with an axe, as told in Aeschylus's Agamemnon.

• Atreus

  Aegisthus, son of Thyestes, killed Atreus to avenge the Thyestean feast. His murder of Atreus fulfilled the curse on the house of Pelops and temporarily restored Thyestes to the throne of Mycenae.

Slain by

• Orestes,Pylades

  Orestes and Pylades together slew Aegisthus, Clytemnestra's lover and Agamemnon's murderer, while he was making a sacrifice. In Aeschylus's Choephoroi, this killing precedes the matricide.

Associated with

• Chrysothemis

  Chrysothemis lived under the tyrannical rule of Aegisthus after he and Clytemnestra murdered Agamemnon. In Sophocles's Electra, she counsels submission to his authority rather than the resistance Electra advocates.

• Pelopia

  Pelopia exposed the infant Aegisthus after his birth. Years later, she recognized Thyestes' sword in Aegisthus's possession and killed herself with it upon learning the truth.