About Aegisthus    Thyestes, following the advice of an oracle about how to get even with his brother Atreus, fathers Aegisthus by his own daughter (see About Atreus and Thyestes).  This daughter, Pelopia, then marries Atreus who thinks that Aegisthus is his own son.  To end the plague in Mycenae Atreus orders Thyestes' return from exile, promising reconciliation.  But instead Atreus imprisons Thyestes as soon as he arrives and sends Aegisthus to kill him.  Thyestes tells Pelopis and Aegisthus that he is Aegisthus' father.  Pelopia, finding out that her own father had ravished her in darkness, kills herself.  Aegisthus restores his true father Thyestes to the throne by killing Atreus.  Thyestes now king of Mycenae again exiles Atreus' sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus.
    Later in life, when Agamemnon was absent at Troy, Aegisthus takes Agamemnon's wife Clytaemnestra as his lover.  On Agamemnon's return the two murder him. So for seven years Aegisthus ruled at Mycenae until killed by Orestes, son of Agamemnon. Back to Family Tree Back to Literature Index