The sons of the great hero Pelops were Atreus and Thyestes. Pelops was once cursed by the charioteer of King Oenomaus, Myrtilus, who was treacherously killed by Pelops, and with his curse doomed the entire family of Pelops to great atrocities and death. The curse of Myrtilus weighed heavily on both Atreus and Thyestes. They committed a number of atrocities. Atreus and Thyestes killed Chrysippus, the son of the nymph Axione and their father Pelops. It was the mother of Atreus and Thyestes Hippodamia who persuaded them to kill Chrysippus. Having committed this atrocity, they fled from their father’s kingdom, fearing his wrath, and took refuge with the king of Mycenae Sthenel, son of Perseus, who was married to their sister Nikippa. When Sthenel died and his son Eurystheus, captured by Iolaus, died at the hands of Hercules’ mother Alcmene, Atreus began to rule over the Mycenaean kingdom, since Eurystheus did not leave behind heirs. His brother Thyestes was jealous of Atreus and decided to take away power from him in any way. He stole from his brother, with the help of Atreus's wife Aerope, the golden-fleeced ram given to him by the god Hermes. Thyestes kidnapped this ram because the gods said: “He who owns the golden-fleeced ram will rule over Mycenae.” Having kidnapped the ram, Thyestes also demanded power over the kingdom - after all, he had the ram. Zeus the Thunderer was angry with Thyestes, and with heavenly signs he made it clear to the inhabitants of Mycenae that he was trying to seize power by Thyestes by wicked means. The Mycenaeans refused to recognize Thyestes as king, and he, fleeing the wrath of his brother, was forced to flee from Mycenae. Taking revenge on his brother, he secretly took Atreus's son, Polysthenes, away from Mycenae. In a foreign land, Thyestes raised Polysthenes as his own son, and instilled in him great hatred of Atreus. The insidious Thyestes wanted to use Polysthenes as an instrument of revenge against his brother. When Polythenes grew up, Thyestes sent him to Mycenae, ordering him to kill Atreus. But the young man himself fell at the hands of his father. Atreus was horrified when he learned who the young man he had killed was. He swore to take revenge on his brother and came up with an insidious and brutal plan. Atreus, in order to carry out his plan, pretended to be ready to reconcile with Thyestes. He sent to his brother and called him to return to Mycenae. When Thyestes returned to Mycenae, he and Atreus' wife Aeropa again began to plot against Atreus, thinking only about how to kill his brother. Atreus knew about this, and his determination to take revenge on his treacherous brother strengthened even more. He ordered to secretly seize the sons of Thyestes, young Polysthenes and Tantalus, and kill them. From their bodies Atreus prepared a terrible meal for his brother.
He invited Thyestes to a feast and placed before him dishes from the meat of his sons. Zeus' thunder rolled across the sky. The Thunderer was angry with Atreus for his crime. The radiant sun god Helios also shuddered with horror; he turned his chariot and drove his winged horses back to the east, so as not to see how the father would be satisfied with the meat of his sons. Thyestes, not suspecting anything, sat down to the meal and ate calmly. Thyestes has had his fill. Suddenly a vague premonition of great misfortune took possession of him, and he asked Atreus about his sons. Atreus called the servants and ordered them to show Thyestes the heads and feet of Polysthenes and Tantalus. Thyestes burst into tears when he saw that his sons had died. He began to beg Atreus to give him the corpses of his sons in order to bury them. But Atreus answered his brother that his sons had already been buried by him, but not in the ground, but in himself. In horror, Thyestes realized what kind of food he had just eaten. He overturned the table and fell to the floor with a terrible scream. Mad with grief, he finally jumped up and, cursing Atreus and his entire family, ran out of the palace. Remembering nothing, seeing nothing, Thyestes fled from Mycenae and took refuge in the desert. He hid there for a long time, and finally came to the king of Epirus, Thesprot, who gave him shelter.
The gods were angry with Atreus for the atrocities he had committed. To punish him, they sent a crop failure to Argolis. Nothing grew in the rich fields. Famine reigned in the possessions of Atreus. Residents died in the thousands. Atreus turned to the oracle to find out the cause of the misfortune. The oracle answered that the disaster would end only when Thyestes was returned to Mycenae. For a long time Atreus searched for his brother throughout Greece, but could not open his hiding place. Finally, he found his young son Aegisthus. Atreus brought Aegisthus to his palace and raised him as a son.
Many years have passed. Somehow, by chance, the sons of Atreus, Menelaus and Agamemnon, discovered where Thyestes was hiding. They managed to capture Thyestes and bring him to Mycenae. Atreus did not reconcile with his brother. He imprisoned him and decided to kill him. He called Aegisthus, gave him a sharp sword, ordered him to go to the dungeon and kill the prisoner there. Aegisthus did not know what terrible task Atreus, whom he considered his father, was sending him to. As soon as Aegisthus entered the prison, Thyestes immediately recognized him as his son. He revealed to him who he was, and father and son immediately in prison made a plan on how to destroy Atreus. Aegisthus returned to the palace and told Atreus that he had carried out his orders and killed the prisoner. Atreus was glad that he had finally managed to destroy his brother. He hurried to the seashore to make a sacrifice to the Olympian gods. It was here, during the sacrifice, that Aegisthus struck him in the back and killed him with the very sword that Atreus had given him to kill his father with. Aegisthus Thyestes was freed from prison. Thyestes and his son seized power over Mycenae. The sons of Atreus, Menelaus and Agamemnon, were forced to flee. They found protection from the king of Sparta, Tyndareus. There they married the daughters of Tyndareus - Menelaus, beautiful as the goddess Aphrodite, Helen, and Agamemnon - Clytemnestra. After some time, Agamemnon returned to Mycenae, killed Thyestes and began to rule where his father had once ruled. Menelaus, after the death of Tyndareus, became king of Sparta.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru