Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

Hamilton calls the House of Atreus “one of the most famous families in mythology” for its connection to Trojan war figures (333). A curse hung over the house that could be traced back to the Lydian king Tantalus, a beloved son of Zeus. For unknown reasons, he boiled his son Pelops and served him to the gods, but they recognized what he had done, recoiled from the meal, and punished Tantalus severely. Placed in a pool of water below a grove of fruit trees, he was never able to quench his thirst or satisfy his hunger. The gods restored Pelops, and he had a happy life and marriage to Hippodamia.

Pelops’s sister Niobe also had a happy marriage that produced seven daughters and seven sons, but she challenged the people of Thebes to worship her instead of Leto, since she only had two children, Artemis and Apollo, while Niobe had 14. In retaliation, Apollo and Artemis struck down all of her children. Pelops’s two sons were Atreus and Thyestes. The latter stole his brother’s wife, and Atreus punished his brother by serving his own children to him at a banquet. Atreus did not pay for his crime; rather, his children and grandchildren did.