Aigisthus

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Aigisthus is murdered by Orestes and Pylades.

Aigisthos ( ancient Greek Αἴγισθος Aígisthos , meaning not exactly known, perhaps power of the goat ; Latin Aegisthus ; German also Aigisth or Aegisth ) belongs in Greek mythology to the disreputable family of the Tantalids and is a son of Thyestes and his daughter Pelopeia .

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Thyestes believed that his brother Atreus had wrongly robbed the throne of Mycenae . In addition, Thyestes had a relationship with Atreus' wife Aërope . In revenge, Atreus killed Thyestes' sons to give him for supper. Thereupon Thyestes fled to King Thesprotus and asked an oracle how he could now take revenge . The information was that he should father a son with his own daughter Pelopeia, who would kill Atreus. So he went to Sicyon and begat by night and unrecognized with his daughter Aigisthus. Here she stole his sword from him. Thyestes left his daughter with Thesprotus and went to Lydia .

In search of Thyestes, Atreus came to Thesprotus. When he saw Pelopeia, he fell in love with her and asked Thesprotos, whom he took to be his father, for her hand, and he gave it to him as a wife. After Aigisthus was born, Pelopeia was ashamed of the illegitimate son and abandoned him. Shepherds found him and had a goat suckle him (hence his name). Atreus, who did not know the boy's origins, sent for him, took him in and raised him like his own son. When Aigisthus grew up, Pelopeia gave him his father's sword.

Atreus sent Aigisthus to Thyestes to kill him. When he tried to kill Thyestes with his own sword, Thyestes recognized it. After explaining to Aigisthus that he was his birth father, Aigisthos returned to Mycenae and killed Atreus.

Aigisthus and Thyestes now ruled Mycenae together and expelled Atreus' sons Agamemnon and Menelaus to nearby Sparta , where King Tyndareus gave the first his daughter Clytaimnestra and the other Helena to wife. When Tyndareos died, he gave the throne of Sparta to Menelaus, who in turn helped Agamemnon to conquer Aigisthus and Thyestes and become king of Mycenae.

According to Dictys Cretensis , Aigisthos first married a daughter of Strophios . However, when Agamemnon had left Mycenae to go to the Ten Years ' Trojan War , Aigisthus seduced his wife Klytaimnestra. With her he fathered a son Alete and a daughter Erigone .

Aigisthus and Klytaimnestra planned to murder Agamemnon on his return, so they sent out scouts to inform them of his return in good time. So they received the unsuspecting Agamemnon in Mycenae and killed him while he was changing his clothes. Now they also killed Kassandra , their two sons Teledamus and Pelops, and the charioteer Eurymedon. Elektra fled with Orestes and thus saved him from being murdered by Aigisthus.

Eight years later, Orestes returned to Mycenae with Pylades. Since Aigisthos was absent, he first killed his own mother. Afterwards, Aigisthus was ambushed and killed. Since Orestes was exiled by Tyndareus for the murder of his own mother , Aletes took control of the city.

Aigisthos is considered by the Greek tragedy poets and Seneca as the epitome of the cruel but cowardly seducer.

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Commons : Aigisthos  - collection of images, videos and audio files
predecessor Office successor
Agamemnon King of Mycenae
12th century BC BC
(mythical chronology) 		Aletes