Pelopeia (Mycenae)

Pelopeia ( Greek  Πελόπεια ) is in Greek mythology a daughter of Thyestes and the second wife of Atreus of Mycenae and mother of Aigisthus . She is a granddaughter of Pelops and a priestess of Athena .

Thyestes had fought for the throne of Mycenae with Atreus , but also had an affair with Atreus' wife Aërope . Atreus learned of Thyestes' and Aëropes' adultery, he killed Thyestes' sons, cooked them, kept hands and feet, and gave Thyestes his own sons to eat and then mocked him with their limbs. Only Pelopeia was spared and taken by Atreus as his second wife.

Thyestes asks an oracle how he can get revenge and is prophesied that he would have to father an incestuous child with his daughter in order to get revenge. Pelopeia is secretly raped by her father while she is doing her job as a priestess. The sword that Thyestes leaves behind later becomes the object of recognition and the weapon with which Pelopeia kills herself. Aigisthos emerges from this rape . The child is immediately abandoned by Pelopeia after its birth, but found by shepherds and suckled by a goat . It is later raised by his uncle Atreus of Mycenae, his mother's husband. But when the latter instructs him to kill Thyestes, the victim recognizes his son by his own sword. But now Pelopeia also recognizes the father of her son in her father and kills herself. Aigisthos now kills his uncle Atreus and he and Thyestes then rule Mycenae together.

literature

• Otto Höfer : Pelopeia 1) . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 3.2, Leipzig 1909, Sp. 1862-1864 ( digitized version ).