Atreus in the Ancient Sources: 86 Passages in Greek & English

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Fragments 1.69–71The Trojan War and the house of AtreusA long papyrus fragment tells how the gods were divided by strife and how Zeus planned storm and tempest over the boundless earth. The shorter fragments cover Agamemnon and Menelaus and the fate of Iphigeneia.

Homer (57)

Homer, Iliad 11.163–283Iris to Hector; Agamemnon is woundedZeus sends Iris to tell Hector to hold back until Agamemnon has been wounded and left the field, and then he will have power to kill until sunset. Agamemnon kills Iphidamas, and Iphidamas' brother Coon wounds him in the arm. Agamemnon kills Coon and fights on until the blood dries, and then pain seizes him like a woman in labour and he drives to the ships.
Homer, Iliad 1.304–427Briseis is taken from Achilles; Achilles prays to ThetisAgamemnon launches a ship to take the girl home to Chryses and sends heralds to Achilles' hut to take Briseis. Achilles lets her go, then sits weeping by the sea and prays to his mother Thetis, who rises from the water to comfort him. He asks her to go to Zeus and win honour for him by having the Achaeans driven back to their ships.
Homer, Iliad 17.1–107Menelaus kills Euphorbus and guards the bodyMenelaus stands over the fallen Patroclus like a cow over her first calf and warns Euphorbus to keep away. Euphorbus boasts that he will avenge his brother, but Menelaus kills him with a spear through the neck and begins to strip his armour. Apollo, in the likeness of Mentes, urges Hector to go after the horses of Achilles, and Menelaus withdraws before him and calls on Ajax.
Homer, Iliad 1.1–67The Wrath of Achilles; Chryses and the plagueThe poet asks the goddess to sing the wrath of Achilles, which began when Agamemnon and Achilles quarrelled. Chryses, a priest of Apollo, comes to the Achaean ships with ransom to free his daughter, but Agamemnon sends him away harshly, and the old man prays to Apollo. The god comes down from Olympus and strikes the army with a plague, first the mules and dogs and then the men, until on the tenth day Achilles calls an assembly and asks for a seer to explain the god's anger.
Homer, Iliad 1.188–303Athena stops Achilles; Nestor's pleaAchilles is about to draw his sword on Agamemnon when Athena, sent by Hera, seizes him by his hair and tells him to use words only. He obeys, but swears by his sceptre that the Achaeans will long for him when Hector is killing them in crowds. Nestor tries to reconcile the two, but Achilles will not yield, and the assembly breaks up.
Homer, Iliad 7.313–432Antenor urges Helen's return; the burial truceAt the Achaean feast Nestor proposes that they burn their dead and build a wall and ditch to protect the ships. At Troy, Antenor urges the Trojans to give back Helen, but Paris will give up only the treasure. Priam sends the herald Idaeus to offer that and to ask for a truce, and the Achaeans refuse Helen's return but agree to the truce, and both sides gather their dead.
Homer, Iliad 9.307–429The Embassy to Achilles: Achilles' replyAchilles answers that he hates the man who says one thing and hides another in his heart, and that he will speak plainly. He says that Agamemnon has given nothing for all his toil, that the coward and the brave man die alike, and that no gifts will move him; he will sail for Phthia in the morning. His mother Thetis has told him of two fates, a long life without glory if he goes home, or glory and early death if he stays.
Homer, Iliad 2.1–101Zeus sends a deceptive dream to AgamemnonWhile the other gods sleep, Zeus plans to honour Achilles and sends a deceitful dream to Agamemnon in the likeness of Nestor, telling him that the gods now favour him and that he can take Troy. Agamemnon wakes with the voice in his ears, dresses and bids the heralds summon the Achaeans. He first holds a council of the elders beside Nestor's ship and tells them of the dream.
Homer, Iliad 3.245–382The oaths and the duel of Menelaus and ParisHeralds bring lambs and wine for the oaths, and Priam drives down to swear with Agamemnon, who prays to Zeus that the brains of whoever breaks the oath be poured out like the wine. Priam returns to Ilios, and the lots, cast by Hector and Odysseus, give Paris the first throw. Menelaus breaks his sword and drags Paris by the helmet strap, but Aphrodite breaks the strap and snatches Paris away in a mist.
Homer, Iliad 9.606–713The Embassy to Achilles: Ajax's appeal and the returnAchilles tells Phoenix that he has no need of Agamemnon's honour, since Zeus honours him, and bids him stay the night and decide in the morning whether to sail. Ajax tells Odysseus that they should go, since Achilles' heart is wild in his breast, and Achilles replies that he will not fight until Hector reaches the ships of the Myrmidons. Odysseus reports to the Achaeans, and Diomedes tells Agamemnon to leave Achilles alone and lead them out at dawn.
Homer, Iliad 13.576–672Helenus and Menelaus; Paris kills EuchenorHelenus kills Deipyrus with a great sword stroke, and Menelaus pins Helenus' hand to his bow with a spear. Menelaus kills Peisander, and Meriones kills Harpalion, the son of Pylaemenes, who is mourned by the Paphlagonians. Paris, angry at Harpalion's death, kills Euchenor.
Homer, Iliad 19.154–275The gifts and the oath: Briseis is returnedAchilles says that Agamemnon may give the gifts or keep them, since he wants only to fight. Odysseus advises that the men first take food, since a man cannot fight fasting, and the gifts are brought to the middle of the assembly. Agamemnon swears by Zeus that he never lay with Briseis and sacrifices a boar, and Achilles accepts.

45 more passages of Homer that name Atreus

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome E.2.1–16Tantalus, Pelops and the house of AtreusThe Epitome describes the punishment of Tantalus in Hades, Pelops' revival after being boiled at the gods' banquet, and his winning of Hippodamia from Oenomaus with the help of the charioteer Myrtilus, whom he then drowns. It follows the sons of Pelops: Atreus and Thyestes quarrel over the kingdom of Mycenae because of the golden lamb, Atreus serves Thyestes his own sons, and Aegisthus, born to Thyestes by his daughter, kills Atreus. It ends with Agamemnon, Menelaus and the children of Agamemnon.

Aeschylus (5)

Aeschylus, Agamemnon 40–175Parodos (1): the army sails and the omen of the eaglesThe Chorus of old men of Argos recall that it is now the tenth year since Menelaus and Agamemnon sailed against Troy, and say that they are too old to fight and wait at home. They ask Clytaemestra why sacrifices are burning on every altar, then tell of the omen seen as the army set out, two eagles devouring a pregnant hare. They tell how the seer Calchas read it as the capture of Troy and warned that Artemis was angry, and they pray that she will not hold back the fleet with contrary winds.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 355–474First stasimon: Zeus, Paris and HelenThe Chorus thank Zeus and Night for the net in which Troy was caught, and say that Zeus punishes those who offend against the laws of hospitality, as Paris did. They sing of Helen's flight, the grief that she left behind in the house of Menelaus, and the ashes of the war dead returned from Troy. They end with the anger of the people against the sons of Atreus and their own fear of excessive glory.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1577–1673Exodos: Aegisthus and the ChorusAegisthus enters and says that he rejoices to see Agamemnon in the net of justice, and tells the story of Atreus and the banquet he served to his brother Thyestes. The Chorus mock Aegisthus as a man who left the killing to a woman, and say that Orestes may still come back to take vengeance, and the two sides almost come to blows. Clytaemestra stops them and tells Aegisthus that they will be masters of the house.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1035–1177Fourth episode: Clytaemestra and Cassandra's first criesClytaemestra comes out and tells Cassandra to come inside, but Cassandra does not answer, and the Chorus tell her to obey. Clytaemestra gives up, and then Cassandra cries out to Apollo and begins to speak of the house of Atreus, its butchery and the murdered children, and of a bath and a net, while the Chorus do not understand her. She ends by lamenting the fall of Troy.
Aeschylus, Agamemnon 1178–1255Fourth episode (cont.): Cassandra's visions of the house of AtreusCassandra says that she will no longer speak in riddles, and tells how the Furies haunt the house for the old crime of Atreus, the banquet in which Thyestes was served the flesh of his own sons. She tells how Apollo loved her and cursed her never to be believed, and says that a lion lies in wait for her master, betrayed by the woman who is like a hound that licks his hand. The Chorus recognise the story of Thyestes, and Cassandra says that they will see Agamemnon dead.

Sophocles (2)

Sophocles, Philoctetes 1348–1407bExodos (cont.): Philoctetes refuses and Neoptolemus yieldsPhiloctetes cries out against the hateful life that keeps him alive, and says that he cannot join the Greeks who left him to rot, or the sons of Atreus. He asks Neoptolemus to keep his promise and take him home, and Neoptolemus, though he fears the vengeance of the Greeks, finally agrees to take him to Oeta. Philoctetes says that he will help him with the arrows of Heracles.
Sophocles, Electra 1060–1097Second stasimon: the birds and Electra's loyaltyThe Chorus say that even birds care for those who gave them life, and call on a voice from the underworld to tell the sons of Atreus of the strife in their house. They sing that Electra stands alone, mourning her father like the nightingale and ready to die if she can overcome the double Erinys of the house. They praise her devotion to her father and pray that she may one day rise above her enemies.

Euripides (12)

Euripides, Orestes 1–70Prologue: Electra tells of the house of Atreus and Orestes' illnessElectra tells of the curse on the house from Tantalus and Atreus down to Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. She says that Orestes killed his mother at Apollo's command and now lies sick and tormented by the Furies. She says that Argos will decide today whether they are to be stoned, and that her one hope is Menelaus, who has just landed with Helen.
Euripides, Electra 685–746Electra's vow; second choral song on Atreus and ThyestesElectra says that if Orestes dies in the struggle she will die too, and that she will keep a sword ready in her hand, and tells the women to give a shout when the deed is done. The Chorus sings of the golden lamb that Pan brought and that was the cause of the quarrel between Atreus and Thyestes, and of how the sun and the stars turned back on their paths, and says that Clytemnestra killed her husband.
Euripides, Hecuba 1056–1131Exodos: the blinded Polymestor appeals to AgamemnonPolymestor crawls out of the tent, blinded, and cries out for his Thracian spearmen and for the sons of Atreus, saying that he wishes to seize the women and tear them limb from limb. The Chorus says that his pain is great, and Agamemnon, hearing his cry, comes out and asks who has blinded him and killed his children.
Euripides, Trojan Women 406–461First episode: Cassandra foretells the wanderings of OdysseusThe Chorus says that Cassandra smiles at her own sad lot, and Talthybius says that if Apollo had not turned her wits he would not let her send the chiefs off with such ill omens. Cassandra mocks heralds as the hated servants of rulers, and, asked about Hecuba's fate, says that Hecuba will die at Troy and that Odysseus, who does not know what awaits him, will wander ten years beyond the Trojan ones, past Charybdis, the Cyclops and Circe, and descend alive to Hades, before she is led away.
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 1–66Prologue: Iphigenia at Artemis' temple among the TauriansIphigenia tells the story of her house, from Pelops to Atreus, and how her father Agamemnon, to win a fair wind for Troy, brought her to Aulis to be sacrificed to Artemis, who put a deer in her place and carried her to the land of the Taurians. She is now the priestess of the goddess in a temple where Greek strangers are sacrificed, and she tells of a dream that has led her to think that her brother Orestes is dead.
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 777–821Second episode: the recognition of Orestes and IphigeniaIphigenia tells Pylades that Artemis saved her by giving a deer in exchange, and Pylades, released by his oath, hands the tablet to Orestes. Orestes embraces his sister in unbelieving joy, and the Chorus Leader rebukes him for laying hands on the priestess. Iphigenia doubts that he is her brother, and Orestes gives tokens: the quarrel of Atreus and Thyestes over the golden ram, the tapestry that she wove, her bridal bath and the lock of hair.
Euripides, Helen 1512–1568Exodos: a Messenger tells Theoclymenus that Helen has goneA Second Messenger tells Theoclymenus that Helen has left with Menelaus in the king's own ship. He tells how Helen mourned as she went down to the dockyard, and how the ship was launched. He says that Menelaus' men, in rags, joined them and carried the offerings aboard, and that the sailors grew suspicious.
Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 473–527First episode: Menelaus relents but Agamemnon fears the armyMenelaus swears by Pelops and Atreus that he will speak the truth, says that the sight of his brother in tears has made him pity him, and withdraws his former demands, asking whether he could not find another bride. The Chorus Leader calls it a generous speech, and Agamemnon thanks him. Agamemnon answers that the whole army will force him to the sacrifice, once Calchas and Odysseus reveal the oracle.
Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1211–1254Fourth episode: Iphigenia pleads for her lifeIphigenia says that if she had the eloquence of Orpheus she would move the rocks to follow her. As a suppliant she twines her limbs about her father's knees and begs him not to destroy her before her time. She asks what she has to do with the marriage of Paris and Helen, and begs for one glance and one kiss to carry to her death.
Euripides, Iphigenia at Aulis 1532–1629Exodos: the messenger reports the sacrifice and the substituted deerA messenger calls Clytemnestra out of the tent to hear a strange and marvellous story about her child. He tells how Iphigenia was led to the grove of Artemis and offered herself bravely, how Calchas laid his sword in the golden basket and Achilles ran round the altar with the lustral water. At the moment of the blow the maiden vanished and a great deer lay dead in her place, and Agamemnon then confirms that Iphigenia has gone to the gods.
Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris 178–235Choral dirge and Iphigenia's lament for her familyThe Chorus answers with a barbarian cry of Asian hymns, singing a dirge for the dead, and recalls the house of Atreus and the quarrel that brought its curse. Iphigenia says that from the first night of her mother's marriage her fate was unhappy, and tells of her sacrifice at Aulis and her life as a stranger among the Taurians. She ends by lamenting her brother Orestes, whom she believes killed in Argos.
Euripides, Orestes 786–843Fourth episode: Orestes goes to the assembly; choral song on the house of AtreusPylades supports Orestes as they set off for the assembly, and Orestes says that one friend is better than a host of relations. The Chorus sings of the downfall of the house of Atreus, from the golden ram to the murder of Clytemnestra. They mourn for Orestes, now raving mad.

Pausanias (3)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.16.1–7Mycenae: Perseus, the Argive kings, the Lion Gate and the tombsPausanias lists the Argive kings from Argos and Triopas to Danaus and Lynceus, the division between Acrisius and Proetus, and the death of Acrisius by Perseus’ quoit. He gives accounts of why Perseus founded Mycenae, and of how the Argives later destroyed it. He describes the surviving walls with the lion gate, the Persea fountain, the treasuries of Atreus and the graves of Agamemnon and his companions, with Clytemnestra and Aegisthus outside the walls.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9.40.1–12Lebadea and Chaeronea: the discovery of the oracle, the works of Daedalus and the sceptre of AgamemnonPausanias tells how the Boeotians found the oracle of Trophonius by following bees, and lists the surviving works of Daedalus. He moves to Chaeronea, once called Arne, and discusses the Roman trophies and why Macedonians set up none, the tomb of the Thebans who fell fighting Philip with its lion, and the sceptre of Agamemnon, which the Chaeroneans worship as a spear and which the priest keeps in his house for a year.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.26.1–9Delphi: Polygnotus' painting of Troy after its capture (2): captive women, Epeus, Ajax and NeoptolemusPausanias continues the Polygnotus painting of Troy with the captive women Clymene, Creusa, Aristomache and Xenodice, and Epeus razing the wall with the Wooden Horse. He describes Ajax son of Oileus swearing an oath beside Cassandra and the image of Athena, the sons of Atreus, and Neoptolemus slaying Elasus and Astynous. He explains the bronze corselets of old, then Laodice, Medusa and a woman with a child.

Quintus Smyrnaeus (5)

Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 6.451–651Eurypylus drives the Argives to the shipsPodaleirius arms in grief for his brother and kills Cleitus and Lassus. Eurypylus then drives the Argives toward the ships; Aias son of Oileus is struck down by a stone from Aeneas, and the Atreidae are surrounded until Teucer, Idomeneus and others rally. The Trojans charge as one man and the Argives flee, and only nightfall stops Eurypylus from burning the ships.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 4.1–117Glaucus carried to Lycia; Thetis sets the gamesThe Trojans lay Glaucus on his pyre, but Apollo snatches him away to Lycia, where the Nymphs make a spring that bears his name. The Argives go on mourning Achilles, and in heaven Hera reproaches Zeus for favouring Troy while he sits silent. At dawn Diomedes urges an attack, but Aias says they must wait for Thetis, who now comes out of the sea to set out the prizes for the funeral games.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 4.465–595Funeral games: leaping, javelin, chariot-race and horse-raceAgapenor wins the long jump and Euryalus the javelin, and no one dares box against Aias. Menelaus wins the chariot-race, in which Thoas and Eurypylus are thrown from their cars, and the text breaks off in the middle of the race. Agamemnon then wins the horse-race with Sthenelus second, and Thetis gives gifts to all the riders, while Odysseus is kept out by his wound.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 5.121–236Aias and Odysseus claim the armsThetis offers the arms to the best of the Argives, and Aias and Odysseus rise to claim them. Nestor speaks privately to Idomeneus and Agamemnon, warning that this contest will cost the army dear. The three refuse to judge between the heroes.
Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy (Posthomerica) 5.237–332Odysseus wins the arms of AchillesOdysseus and Aias abuse each other in turn, Odysseus mocking Aias' tongue and Aias denying that Odysseus did anything in the fighting. The Trojan captives are made to judge, and they award the arms to Odysseus.

Atreus in the ancient sources

Hesiod (1)

Homer (57)

Apollodorus (1)

Aeschylus (5)

Sophocles (2)

Euripides (12)

Pausanias (3)

Quintus Smyrnaeus (5)