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Mythic Figure

Atreus

Ἀτρεύς

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King of Mycenae whose vengeance on his brother was the Thyestean banquet.

Contending with Thyestes for the throne of Mycenae and betrayed by him in marriage and in the matter of the golden lamb, Atreus took a vengeance that made the sun turn back: he slaughtered his brother’s sons and served them to their father at a feast of reconciliation. From him the sons Agamemnon and Menelaus are the Atreidae, and the hereditary horror of the house passes to the next generation entire.

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