055 The Curse of Atreus (the conclusion)

So after a week of eagerly waiting to what happens to Atreus after his family is cursed by his own brother. After Thyestes had unknowingly ate Mrs.Lovett's meatpies so to speak, he was banished from the kingdom for eating human flesh. All the while his brother taunted him with the hands and feet of his children that he didn't put through the grinder. However Atreus was going to learn to heed the words of his brother's curse, because back then cursing someone was serious business.

Greek Mythology: We have a lot of Incest

Using the old Greek cliche of going to the Oracle to give him some good advice, but what the Oracle told him to do was quite different than anything I ever heard in Greek Mythology. The oracle told him that if he slept and had sex with his DAUGHTER, the result  of the coupling would grow up to kill Atreus. Despite  having to commit incest with his dear daughter Pelopia, Thyestes was desperate in getting revenge on his brother and there was no sweeter revenge than having sex with his daughter to sire a boy then wait for him to grow up and then murder his brother years after the incident. (Though to be fair, Atreus did make him eat his children)

Farms the Greek's answer to dumping off unwanted pregnancies

Needless to say when Pelopia gave birth to her father's ticket for revenge, she was quite ashamed of what had happened, but since it was taboo to kill babies via direct means she took her little bundle of joy and abandoned him the mountains like any good mother would do. Inevitably some shepherds found him and decided , "Well hey. More hands to protect the flocks." and adopted him. Later when he was found suckling on a goat they decided to give him the name Aegisthus, gee where did I hear that name before? That's right the guy who seduced Clytemnestra and usurped Agamemnon's throne was also the revenge child of Thyestes.

Okay I admit that amphora is actually depicting Orestes killing Aegisthus, but I couldn't find one of the death of Atreus

The boy was growing all fine and dandy with the shepherds and farmers when he caught the attention of Atreus. Without any knowledge of the boy's background, he decided it would be a great idea to adopt the boy and raise him as his son. Pelopia recognized her son somehow and gave him a sword which revealed to Atreus of Thyestes affair with his own daughter. Soon afterwards Pelopia committed suicide in shame as Aegisthus began his hunt for Thyestes. It was only after that Thyestes saw the sword that Aegisthus held did he realize this was his son. He told the young man his true origins and told him to fulfill his destiny. And so Aegisthus returned, murdered Atreus and he and Thyestes became  the rulers of the kingdom of Mycenae.

Damn you Google images for reminding of this abomination once again!

 

However Atreus had some kids, you might have heard of them, Agamemnon and Menelaus. The new rulers of Mycenae thought it was a good idea to just exile the two brothers,  but wouldn't come back to haunt them and bite them in the ass. Menelaus of course married Helen and assumed control of Sparta once Helen's father, King Tyndareus, died without a male heir. Now with control over Sparta Menelaus helped his brother retake the kingdom of Mycenae and Agamemnon would go on to rule that kingdom until that faithful day when Aegisthus came back to exact even more revenge. Amazing what one curse from a stable boy can do to a family tree. Sure I was a little disorganized in presenting the whole misfortunes of this family starting with Tantalus and ending with Orestes' redemption, but I'm glad that it is over. Now I need to find something epic and awesome for next week, luckily I know a guy  who is awesomeness personified, that man is Diomedes (not the guy with the man eating mares, he's dead)