（Ἀτρεύς), 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. - A Dictionary of Greek and
Roman biography and mythology, William Smith, Ed.
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