Thyestes

Thyestes is a Roman tragedy attributed to Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE), likely composed in the first half of the first century CE. Thyestes handles an episode from the myth of the brothers Thyestes and Atreus, who vied for the throne of Argos. The play details Atreus’s revenge against his brother, which involves tricking him into unwittingly eating his own children. Like many of Seneca’s tragedies, Thyestes drew on earlier Greek and Roman tragedies that dramatized the same myth, all of them now lost. The play explores themes of The Destructive Power of Desire, The Overturning of the Natural Order, and The Meaning and Nature of Power. Other plays by Seneca include Medea, Oedipus, and Phaedra.

This study guide uses Emily Wilson’s translation of the play from the Oxford World Classics volume of Seneca: Six Tragedies (2010).

Content Warning: The source material of this study guide features the death of children.

Plot Summary

The play’s first act shows the ghost of Tantalus arriving on stage. Tantalus, the sinful ancestor of the Argive king Atreus and his brother Thyestes, has been dragged up from the underworld by one of the Furies to infect the royal house of Argos with his evil frenzy.