Atreus’s Family Tree

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Family

• Hippodamia(parent),Pelops(parent),Pittheus(sibling),Thyestes(sibling)— Marriage

  Pelops won Hippodamia by defeating her father Oenomaus in a chariot race. Their sons Atreus, Thyestes, and Pittheus founded rival dynasties whose feuds cursed the house for generations.

• Aerope(spouse),Agamemnon(child),Menelaus(child)— Marriage

  Atreus and Aerope were the parents of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Aerope's affair with Thyestes triggered the curse that devastated the House of Atreus.

• Anaxibia(child)

  Anaxibia was a daughter of Atreus. She married Strophius of Phocis, and their son Pylades became the devoted companion of Orestes.

• Pelopia(spouse)— Marriage

  Atreus married Pelopia without knowing she was the daughter of his enemy Thyestes. He raised her son Aegisthus as his own.

Enemy of

• Thyestes

  Atreus and Thyestes waged a bitter feud over the throne of Mycenae, culminating in Atreus murdering Thyestes' sons and serving them to him at a banquet.

Slain by

• Aegisthus

  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.

Associated with

• Myrtilus,Thyestes

  Myrtilus's dying curse on Pelops and his descendants fell most heavily on the brothers Atreus and Thyestes, whose mutual betrayals, cannibalism, and bloodshed fulfilled the charioteer's vengeance across generations.

• Chrysippus

  Atreus and Thyestes were implicated in the murder of their half-brother Chrysippus, either acting on their mother Hippodamia's orders or at her instigation, deepening the curse on the House of Pelops.

• Pelopia

  When Atreus discovered that Pelopia was Thyestes' daughter and that Aegisthus was not his son, Pelopia took Thyestes' sword and killed herself.