Download House of Atreus from Edith Hamilton`s Mythology Zeus Tantalus

House of Atreus
from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology
Zeus
Tantalus
Amphion
Niobe
Pelops
Hippodamia
Atreus
Helen
Menelaus
Thyestes
Agamemnon
Iphigenia
Electra
Clytemnestra
Orestes
Some background information about the curse on the House of
Atreus:
Tantalus was Zeus’ mortal child, favored by the gods and allowed to
dine with them at their table. In an act of arrogance, Tantalus decided
to trick the gods --- he killed and boiled his own son Pelops and
served him to the gods. The gods discovered his scheme and
punished him by setting him a pool in Hades where he stood forever
dying of hunger and thirst with food and water visible to him but just
out of his reach.
The Gods restored Pelops to life but both he and his sister (Niobe) were doomed to suffer the
wrath of the gods.
Pelops had two sons – Atreus and Thyestes. When Thyestes had an affair with his brother
(Atreus’) wife, Atreus took revenge by killed Thyestes’ two little children, boiling them, and serving
them to Thyestes.
Atreus had two sons – Agamemnon and Menelaus. Menelaus married Helen (over whose
kidnapping the Trojan war was fought). Agamemnon was THE general the Greek armies assaulting
Troy.
Many times throughout The Odyssey, Gods and mortals reference the story of Agamemnon’s death.
Before leaving for Troy, he sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia, to the Gods, in order to ensure
favorable winds on the sea. His wife (Clytemnestra) never forgave him.
When he returned home from Troy, he took with him Cassandra, the daughter of Troy’s King Priam
and Queen Hecuba. Remember that Cassandra, besides being a princess, was also a prophetess –
she could see the future.
Questions:
Read Edith Hamilton’s Mythology pages 351-363
1. Why was Agamemnon considered the most fortunate of the victorious Greek chieftans?
2. Describe, using specific details from the text, the atmosphere back home awaiting
Agamemnon.
3. Who do we know about Clytemnestra? How does she greet Agamemnon upon his return?
4. Describe, using specific details from the text, Cassandra’s reaction as she is taken into
Agamemnon’s house.
5. What do we know about Aegisthus?
6. What do we know about Electra?
7. Who was Orestes? How was he “so placed that he must choose between two hideous
wrongs”?
8. What God advises Orestes? What is Orestes told to do?
9. What vision is Orestes haunted by both immediately after his bloody act and even years
afterwards?
10. Why does Orestes have to beg forgiveness? How does he do so? Why does Athena grant it?