(), a son of Pelops and Hippodameia, a grandson of
Tantalus, and a brother of Thyestes and Nicippe. [PELOPS.] He was
first married to Cleola, by whom he became the father of Pleisthenes; then to Aerope, the
widow of his son Pleisthenes, who was the mother of Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Anaxibia, either
by Pleisthenes or by Atreus [AGAMEMNON]; and lastly to Pelopia, the
daughter of his brother Thyestes. (Schol. ad Eurip. Orest. 5; Soph. Aj. 1271; Hyg. Fab. 83,
&c.; Serv. ad Aen. 1.462.) The tragic fate of the
house of Tantalus gave ample materials to the tragic poets of Greece, but the oftener the
subjects were handled, the greater were the changes and modifications which the legends
underwent; but the main points are collected in Hyginus. The story of Atreus begins with a
crime, for he and his brother Thyestes were induced by their mother Hippodameia to kill their
step-brother Chrysippus, the son of Pelops and the nymph Axioche or Danais.
(Hyg. Fab. 85; Schol. ad Hom. Il. 2.104.)
According to the Scholiast on Thucydides (1.9), who seems himself
to justify the remark of his commentator, it was Pelops hinself who killed Chrysippus. Atreus
and Thyestes hereupon took to flight, dreading the consequences of their deed, or, according
to the tradition of Thucydides, to escape the fate of Chrysippus. Sthenelus, king of Mycenae,
and husband of their sister Nicippe (the Schol. on Thucvd. calls her Astydameia) invited them
to come to Midea, which he assigned to them as their residence. (Apollod. 2.4.6.) When afterwards Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelus, marched out
against the Heracleids, he entrusted the government of Mycenae to his uncle Atreus; and after
the fall of Eurystheus in Attica, Atreus became his successor in the kingdom of Mycenae. From
this moment, crimes and calamities followed one another in rapid succession in the house of
Tantalus. Thyestes seduced Aerope, the wife of Atreus, and robbed him also of the lamb with
the golden fleece, the gift of Hermes. (Eustath. ad Hom. p.
184.) For this crime, Thyestes was expelled from Mycenae by his brother; but from his
place of exile he sent Pleisthenes, the son of Atreus, whom he had brought up as his own
child, commanding him to kill Atreus. Atreus however slew the emissary, without knowing that
he was his own son. This part of the story contains a manifest contradiction; for if Atreus
killed Pleisthenes under these circumstances, his wife Aerope, whom Thyestes had seduced,
cannot have been the widow of Pleisthenes. (Hyg. Fab. 86; Schol.
ad Hom. 2.249.) In order to obtain an opportunity for taking revenge,
Atreus feigned to be reconciled to Thyestes, and invited him to Mycenae. When the request was
complied with, Atreus killed the two sons of Thyestes, Tantalus and Pleisthenes, and had their
flesh prepared and placed it before Thyestes as a meal. After Thyestes had eaten some of it,
Atreus ordered the arms and bones of the children to be brought in, and Thyestes, struck with
horror at the sight, cursed the house of Tantalus and fled, and Helios turned away his face
from the frightful scene. (Aeschyl. Agam. 1598; Soph. Aj. 1266.) The kingdom of Atreus was now visited by scarcity and famine, and
the oracle, when consulted about the means of averting the calamity, advised Atreus to call
back Thyestes. Atreus, who went out in search of him, came to king Thesprotus, and as he did
not find him there, he married his third wife, Pelopia, the daughter of Thyestes, whom Atreus
believed to be a daughter of Thesprotus. Pelopia was at the time with child by her own father,
and after having given birth to a boy (Aegisthus), she exposed him. The child, however, was
found by shepherds, and suckled by a goat; and Atreus, on hearing of his existence, sent for
him and educated him as his own child. According to Aeschylus (Aesch. Ag. 1605), Aegisthus, when yet a child, was banished with his father Thyestes
from Mycenae, and did not return thither until he had grown up to manhood. Afterwards, when
Agamemnon and Menelaus had grown up, Atreus sent them out in search of Thyestes. They found
him at Delphi, and led him back to Mycenae. Here Atreus had him imprisoned, and sent Aegisthus
to put him to death. But Aegisthus was recognised by his father; and. returning to Atreus, he
pretended to have killed Thyestes, and slew Atreus himself, who was just offering up a
sacrifice on the sea-coast. (Hyg. Fab. 88.) The tomb of Atreus
still existed in the time of Pausanias. (2.16.5.) The treasury of Atreus and his sons at
Mycenae, which is mentioned by Pausanias (l.c.), is believed by some to
exist still (Miller, Orchom. p. 239); but the ruins which Müller
there describes are above ground, whereas Pausanias calls the building ὑπόγαια.